Suspense, fear and life
by Cossacks250
Summary: Read many different stories within the Hollow about the fairies and their encounters. Some have fear, some suspense, others life.
1. Story 1: The Shelter P1

**Note: I do not own the Tinkerbell series and the Kyzua are my creation. Also, each new story has a different background.**

It was a great summer night in Pixie Hollow on Neverland. The moon shone brightly in the ever stretching blackness of the night sky like the sun had done earlier that day, around it the stars also shone brightly to help bring light to the night sky and a gentle breeze blew through the summer night air. It was a very peaceful night for summer, just like most of It's night were.

In one part of Pixie Hollow, on top of part of a large tree trunk was a small teakettle with a large twig and bush ceiling and twig walls. A large door with a small window in the middle was on the side and around the sides were several other windows. Lights coming from inside told anyone looking at it that there were people home. Is house was Tinkerbell's and she was home, only her friends were there as well.

Inside were Tinkerbell, Fawn, Vidia, Iridessa, Rosetta, Silvermist, Terence, Bobble, Clank, Fairy Mary and several others such as Buck, a male animal fairy who was one of Fawn's best friends, Chloe, a Garden fairy who was one of Rosetta's best friends, and another fairy who was one of the groups' friends, and also one of Pixie Hollow's famous celebrities for her story telling, called Lyria.

Set out in the middle of the house was a small wooden table made of twigs packed with grapes, pumpkin muffins, which most of the others had brought with them as they knew they were Tinkerbell's favourite treat, tiny bowls of buttercup soup, pieces of watermelon and lemon meringue pie and all sorts. The fairies were standing around talking to one another and having and good time. They were all here because it was Tinkerbell's 3rd Arrival day birthday. They had all been planning this for a few days and they had surprised her earlier on when she returned home from the Tinker workshop. They had been here for the past few hours now and…quite frankly it was getting close to them having to leave but they were in no rush to.

Whilst Tinkerbell was at the table getting a drink, Fairy Mary was talking to her.

"Well, It's going rather well, Tinkerbell," she said cheerfully.

"Yeah, it is," she replied, pouring herself a cup of cam and meal tea and taking a sip. "Thanks so much for doing all this for me," she said to Fairy Mary.

"Oh, dear, I've told you already when you thanked me earlier, It's fine and you don't need to," Fairy Mary replied. "We threw this surprise party for you as a way of getting you to rest for once without having to worry about that shelter,"

"Hey, you, Bobble and Clank have been helping as well," Tinkerbell told her.

"Yes, but you've been working on it non-stop for weeks now, dear. I remember a few days ago, you came into work and fell asleep at the table you were working at because you'd been up all night. Now, dear, It's time you had a break from it,"

Tinkerbell gave a small smile and shrugged. "I suppose,"

"Yes. Do you know what, I think this calls for a speech," and she flew into the middle of the room, the air noisy with chatter from the others, and called out: "Attention, everyone! Attention!" and everyone else brought their conversations to an end and looked over at her. "Thank you. Now, I would just like to say well done to you all for helping in planning and preparing this surprise party for Tinkerbell, and also for helping me make sure she stays here and doesn't try and sneak off to work on that rotten shelter,"

"Our pleasure, Fairy Mary," Iridessa replied.

"Now," Fairy Mary continued. "Tinkerbell here is going to quickly give us a speech,"

"Wait, I thought you were going to do that," Tinkerbell protested.

"No, I said this calls for a speech, but I didn't say who by," Fairy Mary told her and the others laughed. Tinkerbell rolled her eyes and walked into the middle of the room, stopping there. She cleared her throat.

"First of all, I just…want to thank you all for throwing me this party," she said. "It's been a real break for me and a good time to socialize with you all again after me, Fairy Mary, Bobble and Clank have spent weeks on that shelter we've been building,"

"Yeah, that is something we'll be nice enough to forgive you all for," Vidia piped up jokingly and Tinkerbell and the others laughed. "All that noise you've all been making at night though was very loud. Kept most of us awake for a few hours one night,"

"Sorry about that," Tinkerbell replied. "Anyway, I would also like to thank all of you for forgiving me and Bobble, Clank and Fairy Mary for that shelter we've been building, but I'll be pleased to tell you, It's pretty much finished now,"

The others cheered, even the other three Tinker fairies. What they were talking about was that Tinkerbell's house was on the edge of a tree trunk and they had built a shelter into it. The main purpose of the shelter, which Pixie Hollow's highest council members had been advertising and talking about for some time now, was for the fairies of who built them to hide in them. They were all being advertised because of the recent sudden arrival of a new enemy on Neverland. Known as the Kyzua, they were dragons that were slightly taller than the Neverland fairies and walked on their hind legs, as they had no wings, and, and this lesson the Neverland fairies learnt when they first encountered them; they were very violent and were a nuisance and even a threat to Pixie Hollow. When they had first arrived earlier on in the spring this year, they had attacked a group of fairies, a male garden fairy, a female light fairy and a female water fairy, just outside the large place where the blue pixie dust harvest would take place and almost killed one of them. Not long afterwards, a scout fairy had been attacked and killed and left on the ground. Queen Clarion, the queen of the Hollow, had decided to confront these new creatures and find out what they wanted, which they did agree to, but when she did meet them, along with the council and a group of scout talents for guard, they had attacked them and it was only by the quick intervention of a group of nearby animal fairies that had saved them all from being badly hurt, or even killed. Since then, Queen Clarion, fearing for the safety of her people and believing that the Kyzua would try and attack the Hollow itself one day, had decided that shelters were to be prepared throughout the Hollow.

However, that had been four months ago in March. Since then, they had barely had an attack from the Kyzua. In fact, the Kyzua were more or less attacking the outskirts of the Hollow and had literally torn the grass and nature out of some parts and left it barren, some places they had even turned it into more a desert-like landscape, and because of this, most of the fairies and even some of the Pixie Hollow council believed that they were not going to attack again, not after the meeting in which some of the Kyzua had been really badly hurt, which had probably killed some of them, and most of the shelters that were to be built just stopped before they even began. Still though, fairies were able to collect the resources to build these things and Tinkerbell, along with Bobble, Clank and Fairy Mary, had decided to do just that, building it at Tinkerbell's as the trunk her house was on was far much stronger than the others. They had received a few strange looks and comments, even from their own friends, but they just ignored them and Tinkerbell had even warned them that building their own shelters would be a good idea, but when never she said this to them it fell on deaf ears. They just did not want to accept the fact they were living in a dangerous time and that at any day, the Kyzua could suddenly come charging out of the mountains in the middle of Neverland and attack them. Still, though, Tinkerbell never gave up trying.

"I suppose that means you might try and get us to build our own?" Lyria inquired.

"I would be a good idea," Tinkerbell said. "I would keep you safe,"

"Maybe, but I don't believe the Kyzua'll attack the Hollow. They wouldn't dare," Terence said. "Anyway, Tinkerbell, we actually wanted to say that next to throwing this party, it was also a way of saying thanks from all of us for all the help you've given to the Hollow since you came here. So, everyone," he raised his drink, as did everyone else. "To Tinkerbell,"

"Tinkerbell," the others chirruped.

Tinkerbell blushed. It was so good to have such good friends.

"Thank guys," she said. "You're the best friends anyone could ever have,"

"Well, we do try," Bobble said.

At that point, Lyria slapped her hands together. "Right," she said. "We've got a while yet so why don't I tell us a story to pass the time,"

"Good idea," Silvermist said.

The others agreed and followed Lyria over to one of the large building blocks Tinkerbell had in the corner of the room. Vidia drank the rest of her watermelon juice

"You coming to listen, Vidia?" Bobble asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "I might have to make a move so I don't oversleep and join the others on the other side of Neverland,"

"Oh, c'mon, Vidia," Fawn, who was nearby and heard them, pleaded. "Just for one story. It's Tink's birthday, I don't think she'd like it of you left so soon,"

Vidia looked over at Tinkerbell and the others, who were sitting down in front of Vidia like a group of eager schoolchildren ready to listen to a book their teacher was reading to them and shrugged. "Alright, I'll stay," she said.

"Yay!" Fawn exclaimed. "C'mon, guys. I think Lyria's gonna tell us one about the Seasons spirits,"

Vidia eyes lit up a little. Even though she was never really one for Lyria's story telling, she did like learning about the four season spirits who supposedly created the island of Neverland and the four seasons that would pass on it and how they taught the first fairies to bring the seasons to Earth.

As the three went to walk over to the group, Silvermist and Tinkerbell putting out the lights, a knock came from the door. Bobble, hearing it, walked over and opened to reveal a tall male scout fairy with black hair and amber eyes and who had a shirt and trousers made out of a brown and green coloured leaf.

"Oh, hello, Bobble," he said. "Sorry, Is Tinkerbell in?"

"Uh, yes. Hang on a moment," Bobble said and he rushed over to Tinkerbell and told her there was someone at the door. Curious, she fluttered over to the door.

"Sorry to disturb you, Tinkerbell," he said. "I've been told to come and tell everyone Queen Clarion has called a meeting of the Hollow,"

"A meeting of the Hollow?" Tinkerbell repeated. "What for?" she asked.

"Some announcement she has to make," the scout fairy answered. "Anyway, It's best you all get over there," he said and he flew off to warn anyone else living nearby.

"Wonder what that's about?" she asked herself.

"Are you alright, Tinkerbell?" Fairy Mary asked as she and everyone else was looking at her, concerned.

"A scout fairy just told me that there's an announcement Queen Clarion has to make at the Home Tree," she answered. "Don't know what about,"

The others looked at each other with confused looks. An announcement by the Queen right now? It had to be important if it was this late? In fact, any announcement by her including the whole Hollow was important.

After a moment of silence in the house, the group rose to their feet. "Well, we'll find out when we get there," Rosetta said. "Best get going,"

They all left the house, Tinkerbell shutting the door behind them, and flew off towards the Home Tree. As they went, their minds tried to find a reason why there was a meeting being called at the Hollow so late at night. Why was there? It just did not make any sense.

Well, they would find out when they got there if it was something this important.


	2. The Shelter P2

**Several minutes later**

The Pixie Hollow gathering chamber was a large spherical structure made out of a kind of glowing golden metal with a mushroom as a kind of platform placed about half-way above the floor on the wall opposite the main entrance and the whole place being lit up firefly lights along the walls. Most of the fairies had arrived by now and were chatting amongst themselves about what was going on. On top of the mushrooms that were at the top of the hall was Queen Clarion. Next to her were the ministers of spring, summer, autumn and winter, talking to her and informing of her of the latest updates from what was going on.

As the hall began to fill up, Tinkerbell and the others arrived through the entrance.

"Whoa, they weren't kiddin' when they said the whole hollow," Rosetta said.

"Yeah," Iridessa replied. "Let's try and find some seats,"

"I've got to go and speak to the Queen and find out what is going on," Fairy Mary piped up and she flew up towards the top of the hall where the rest of the council and the queen were.

The rest of the group searched around for a seat among the growing crowd until they found three available large stones and they quickly fluttered over to them before anyone else got to them and sat down on them. Tinkerbell, Terence, Vidia and Iridessa sat on one, Bobble, Clank, Silvermist and Lyria sat on another and Rosetta, Chloe, Fawn and Buck sat down on the last, waiting patiently for the queen to begin her announcement.

"So…whaddya guys think Clarion needs to talk to us about?" Terence asked.

"Beats me," Vidia replied.

"Definitely has to be important if everyone in the entire hollow is here," Fawn said from the stone next to theirs.

"Yeah, I hope It's not urgent or about something dangerous," Chloe piped up.

"Well, we'll know soon," Clank said from the third stone, which was next to the one Fawn, Buck, Rosetta and Chloe were sitting on.

Bobble looked up at the group of councillors at the top of the hall. "I wonder if Fairy Mary's having any luck in finding out what's wrong," he muttered.

"Alright, everyone," a voice called out from the entrance to the chamber. A few fairies looked to see a tall scout talent fairy, Tinkerbell and her friends quickly identifying him as the one who had told them of the announcement here, hold open the flap into the hall for a few healing and art fairies to enter before letting it go and fall over the entrance to the chamber. "Quiet, please. The queen's about to make her speech,"

As if on cue, Queen Clarion fluttered down to the floor, the rest of the council behind her. It was easily noticeable that she was nervous because her hands were rubbing against one another and her eyes held a look of concern as if she was afraid of what she had to say. As she came to a halt on the floor, Tinkerbell caught sight of a large scar down the side of her right arm. She had received that on the day when she and the council had gone to meet the Kyzua and, when it had quickly resulted into a fight, one of the Kyzua had used a sharp dagger and cut her across her arm when he had grabbed her. Luckily, it had not penetrated too deep to do any major damage and she had been saved by a scout talent fairy, who had used a stick to knock out the Kyzua dragon by hitting him over the head and he and an animal fairy carried the queen to safety just before the Kyzua decided they had had enough and fled. Although the healing fairies had been able to heal her wound almost instantly, the scar was something they would not be able to get rid of and Clarion would have it for the rest of her life.

Clarion cleared her throat and the chatter around the chamber ceased immediately as if someone had flicked a switch and turned off the volume in the chamber. As well as those on the seats and those standing up, the fairies sitting on the roof of the chamber looked down through the holes, waiting intently for what their queen had to say.

"Fairies of Pixie Hollow," she announced. "Many of you are wondering why you have all been brought here very late and out of the blue tonight. What I have to tell you is very distressing and alarming," she took a deep breath, preparing herself for what she had to say. "Not too long ago, some scout talents on the border of the hollow witnessed a large dust cloud gathering on the desert-like area between the hollow and the mountains in the middle of Neverland, which is the direction they had told us the cloud was coming from. As you may remember, earlier on this year the Kyzua had laid waste to the fields and turned into a barren shell of It's former self,"

A few gasps echoed around the chamber and muttering of worry and fear broke out. If what Queen Clarion was telling them was true, then there was only one explanation for the dust cloud, the very same one that everyone in the chamber was thinking of.

"We have been unable to identify what if the cause of the dust cloud," Clarion continued, silencing the muttering in the chamber. "But in the interest of the safety of all of you here, I am declaring a state of emergency. If you have a shelter at your home, you are to go there and take with you food and water and any medical supplies you have,"

"What if don't have a shelter, your highness?" a male art fairy sitting on a stone near the front asked.

"Then you are to hide as best you can anywhere else in the hollow," she answered. She sighed worryingly and looked at her fairies. "May we pray that if this is the Kyzua, they will not spill any blood. Now go, and good luck everyone,"

As soon as she finished speaking, the fairies in the chamber began to file out of the hall, muttering nervously. Some were crying in fear for they knew that if this was the Kyzua, then they could well and truly be killed within the next hour or so.

As Tinkerbell exited the chamber into the darkness of the night, she flew over a small clearing near the entrance to the chamber, looking around her as fairies flew off in all directions to try and find a place to hide. The peace that once dominated this summer night had now been taken over by the fear of this coming cloud of dust which they believed, and probably were correct about, their deadly enemy. If this was an attack, Tinkerbell began to wonder how many of the fairies she knew in the hollow would be here when it was over.

"Tinkerbell," a voice said from the entrance to the chamber and she looked to see Bobble and Clank, who had just exited the chamber, hover over to her.

"Glad we found you," Bobble said.

"We best get to the shelter," Tinkerbell told them. "Where's Fairy Mary?" she asked.

"She said she'll join us in a minute," Clank told her. "She said she had to speak with queen Clarion,"

Tinkerbell nodded. "Right, let's go," and the three flew off in the direction of her house. As they went, Tinkerbell began to repeat to herself in her mind what they were going to need in the shelter.

_Food. Water. Medical supplies. Maybe a few leaf books as well and a few hammers just in case _she thought. _And a few extra twigs and such just to strengthen the shelter a little._

They were going to have a Hectic rush ahead of them when they got back to their house.


	3. The Shelter P3

**Half an hour later**

Pixie Hollow was now in a state of chaos and anxiety. Everywhere, fairies of all talents were trying to hide wherever they could. If they were not in shelters, then they were in tree tops, in tree trunks, in underwater/underground tunnels or caves. Anywhere to try and hide themselves or their friends along with food and water and medical supplies. It was literally as if they were refugees. Refugees in their own home. It was hard to think about, let alone believe it was actually happening.

At Tinkerbell's house, the table had been pushed to one side and she, Bobble, Clank and Fairy Mary, who had returned about twenty minutes ago, were taking some of the food and water they had left from the party earlier on downstairs through the large trapdoor that led down into the tree trunk underneath the house where the shelter was.

At the moment, Tinkerbell and Fairy Mary were passing down the supplies to Bobble and Clank in the tree trunk.

"Alright, is that all the food we can use?" Clank asked from below as Tinkerbell passed him the last bowl of muffin treats from the table.

"Yeah," she replied. "Just try and put them in the shelter so they're out of the way," she told him.

"Right, Miss Bell," Clank replied.

As Tinkerbell stood up, she walked over to her small desk where some of her equipment she would use for tinkering was. She picked up one of the small hammers and ran her hand down the front of it. Before it was…just a tool used for building things, for creation. Now, if necessary, it was going to have to be a weapon that she would have to use to hurt another creature. Something she was not going to look forward to, but with this dust cloud coming closer, she was not really going to have much choice now.

Snapping back into reality, she turned to look over her shoulder at Fairy Mary, who was trying to fill up another bowl of watermelon juice as fast as she could from the cups on the table or from the small bowls across the table.

"Is all of it in there?" Tinkerbell asked, walking over.

"Y-yes, Tinkerbell," she said, her voice nervous with tension, her hands were shaking and her teeth were chattering as she tried to pour the water into a bowl. "I'm almost d-done with t-t-this one,"

"Right, I'll just give this to Bobble and Clank," Tinkerbell replied, walking over to the trapdoor and climbing down into the small tunnel that went down into the tree trunk, the light from the hose disappearing almost as she entered. It was as if she was entering a new world where the light never shined.

She climbed down the twig ladder to the bottom and turned to see she was in a kind of small cut out cave that was within the tree trunk. About ten feet in front of her, a large thick twig door with a few layers of leafs over it. The door was attached to a thick stone wall that was about two inches thick. Inside, she could see Bobble and Clank moving about inside the shelter.

"Bobble, Clank," Tinkerbell said, walking towards the entrance. Bobble, who was near the door pushing the beds, which were made of shells with pieces of fabric to act as the covers, aside with Clank, looked out and saw her. "May need this in there, just in case," Tinkerbell said to him, passing him the hammer.

Bobble stared at it for a moment before coming to his senses. "Right, Miss Bell," he said.

CRASH! The noise made them jump. Tinkerbell ran back over to the ladder and climbed up it as quickly as she could, Bobble and Clank following her in case something was wrong. Tinkerbell stuck her head out from the tunnel and saw a smashed bowl on the floor, watermelon juice all over the carpet. Fairy Mary was standing next to the table, her hands out in front of her, shaking like mad, a look of despair on her face.

"Oh no!" she cried, kneeling down and trying to pick up the big pieces of the bowl.

Tinkerbell climbed out of the tunnel and rushed over to her, kneeling down in front of her, and placing her hands on her arms.

"It's okay, Fairy Mary," she said, trying to calm her down as Fairy Mary looked up at her with worry filled eyes. "It's okay. It's just watermelon juice. We have more of it downstairs in the shelter," she and Fairy Mary stood up. "Just keep pouring it into the bowls," Fairy Mary nodded and went back to the table. "We might need it soon for when this is over," she added.

"Is everything alright?" Bobble said, sticking his head up from the tunnel.

"Yeah, everything's fine. She just dropped something," Tinkerbell told them. "Is everything down there?" she asked him.

"Yes, all the food and the hammer and we've just pushed the beds to one side for some room," Bobble told her.

"And the medical supplies we have?"

"Yep, they're in there as well,"

"Right, um…grab a few of the buildings blocks and take them downstairs as well. We might need them to put up against the door,"

Bobble nodded and climbed out of the hole, but as he did, he noticed the few leaf books on the desk next to one of Tinkerbell's clippers used for holding things in the fireplace.

"What about the leaf books, Tinkerbell?" Bobble inquired.

"Bobble!" Fairy Mary growled, slamming her fist down onto the table, making an empty plate fall off the side and crack as it hit the floor, as she looked at him. "Tinkerbell asked you to get the building blocks!"

"There's time, Fairy Mary!" Tinkerbell told her. "There's plenty of time," she looked back at Bobble. "Right, yeah, take the books first," he nodded and walked over to the table to get them. "I don't know how long we'll have to stay down there,"

"Hopefully, not too long," Bobble said as he walked past, holding four leaf books in his hands.

"Can't disagree with you on that, Bobble," Tinkerbell replied.

"I don't think anyone would," he said as he climbed back down into the tunnel and disappeared from sight.

Tinkerbell began to talk, mouth, to herself as she counted on her fingers what they had.

"Food, water, medical supplies, books, beds, building blocks, we'll get them in a moment," she mouthed. It was then she remembered something else. "What about metal leafs and the bolts we gathered that time from the beach?" she asked Fairy Mary.

"I think I kept them on the top shelf over there, dear," Fairy Mary answered, pointing over to a shelf on the other side of the house, but as Tinkerbell reached it. "Oh, no, wait! Wait, we don't have them anymore. I had to use them for repairing something at the workshop. I'm sorry, Tinkerbell. I didn't think we'd need them anymore because we were pretty much done with the shelter,"

"It's okay, Fairy Mary," Tinkerbell reassured her, walking over to her and pulling her into a hug. "It's okay,"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Tinkerbell. I'm talking like some idiot," she said. She took a deep breath to calm down and let go of Tinkerbell and placed her hands down on the table. "Now, how long did they say again that it would take for the Kyzua to get here?" she asked.

"About…half an hour to…" Tinkerbell shrugged. "Forty five minutes…an hour, at the most,"

Fairy Mary breathed a heavy breath. "Half an hour," she repeated.

"I'm just winning it, Fairy Mary," Tinkerbell told her. "I don't know exactly. I don't think anyone knows," she rested a hand on her shoulder. "We'll just have to make do with the time we have. Now, keep filling the bowls up,"

Fairy Mary nodded and went back to filling them up. Tinkerbell flew over to the door and looked out across the hollow. The blackness of the night sky stretched on as far as her eyes could see. The stars shined brightly in it. It was peaceful, but as she looked around the hollow, she could see that several lights in the houses were going out and every so often, she'd see a very tiny thin streak of gold shoot from one place to another in the blackness of the night far off in the distance. The other fairies in the hollow were hoping to get to a hiding place as quickly as possible.

_I wonder if they're having as much luck as us _she thought as she closed the door and flew back over to the hole just as Fairy Mary walked over to it with another small bowl of watermelon juice in her hands.

"Careful with it, Clank," she warned as she passed it to him and began to climb down the ladder after him; Tinkerbell followed.

They climbed down the ladder and walked into the shelter. It was a large square shape about ten feet long and ten feet wide, to the fairies, with four different oyster beds along the sides. A small table with the bowls of food and water on it was placed in the corner of the room and there was a small desk with a chair behind it. On the desk were the leaf books and the hammer and on the floor next to the desk were the building blocks.

"Alright, we best get settled," Bobble said as he took the bowl of watermelon juice from Clank and carried it over to the table and put it on there.

"Do we have everything?" Tinkerbell asked herself. She looked around the shelter, her eyes searching every bit of it, trying to make sure that she did not forget anything. "Oh, yes! My chest of tools and lost things," she said. "Wait here, guys, I'll just go and get the last of the water and my chest of lost things,"

"Alright, be quick," Bobble replied. She nodded and left the shelter.

As she left, Fairy Mary got down onto her knees next to one of the beds and placed her hands together in a kind of prayer. Bobble and Clank saw this and walked over to her.

"Don't worry, Fairy Mary," Clank reassured her. "We'll be alright,"

She looked up at him with a look in her eyes as if to say: _How do you know? _She just looked back down at the bed and closed her eyes, keeping her hands in a kind of prayer.

"Look, Fairy Mary," Bobble said, resting his hand on her shoulder. "If it is an attack by the Kyzua, there's no assurance It'll head towards us. And if it doesn't, we'll-"

"What if does, Bobble?" Fairy Mary interrupted him mid-sentence. "What if the attack does come this way? The Home Tree isn't that far off and that'll get the full force and the workshop and the theatre are very close as well and they'll get hit, so we will as well. I can just see it now. They'll break down the door and drag us out…and…and…and h-hurt us…or…o-or even-"

"Sssshhh! It's okay, Fairy Mary," Clank reassured her. "That trapdoor up there is mostly the carpet so it hides the way,"

"Yes," Bobble piped up, trying to sound confident, though it was obvious that he too was nervous of the possibility that the Kyzua could come this far into Pixie Hollow. "And there's only one way in here so it gives us a fighting chance," he tried to force a smile onto his face, but it just did not work.

"So what do we do then?" Fairy Mary asked them, getting up from the floor and walking over to the door. "When the attack is over, do we just…crawl out of here like rats to…to…tiptoe through all of that rubble of our homes up above? The rubble and the bodies of our friends," she sighed sadly. "Oh, why is it so necessary to survive?" she asked in a kind of desperate manner. "Wouldn't it just be easier…i-if…we just…just…" she trailed off and sat down on one of the beds and buried her face in her hands.

Bobble and Clank looked at each other sadly and walked over to Fairy Mary, kneeling down beside her. They were lost for words on how to comfort her. Then again, how could they comfort themselves, let alone her? They too were nervous, frightened even, of the possibility that the Kyzua would get this far into Pixie Hollow and find them here. If they did, they knew very well they could expect little mercy from them.

"Clank," Tinkerbell called from the house. "I need your help with my chest of tools and lost things,"

"Coming, Miss Bell," he replied and got up and walked over to the ladder and climbed up it to help Tinkerbell with her chest.

Bobble sat down on the bed next to Fairy Mary and took her hand in his. She looked up at him.

"Fairy Mary," he said. "That's why we need to survive. The hollow will need people like us when the attack is over. They'll need people like us to help them rebuild,"

She looked up at him and he gave her a small smile. She returned it. "There we go," he said. "We may have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow,"

She chuckled slightly at his joke. Even in a situation that was dangerous and looked hopeless, he could always see the bright side of things. Well, he was right, providing they made it through the night. They would be busy tomorrow, but would it involve clearing away rubble or the bodies of those who had fallen victim to the Kyzua?

"Ofph!" came a groan from Clank as he staggered into the shelter, carrying a large green chest in which Tinkerbell kept her lost things and any extra tools. Behind him was Tinkerbell.

"Where shall I pop it, Miss Bell?" he asked.

"Just put under one of the free beds, Clank," Tinkerbell replied.

"Righty-Ho," and he staggered over to one of the nearby beds and dropped the chest onto the floor with a relieved gasp and pushed it under there with his foot. "That's very heavy," he said.

"Thanks, Clank," Tinkerbell said. "I'll just go and get the rest of the water," and she disappeared again back off towards the ladder.

Bobble got up and walked over to the bed next to Fairy Mary's and sat down on. "We're in for a wild night," he said.


	4. The Shelter P4

Tinkerbell grabbed the last two bowls of the water but stopped for a moment, knowing that she would not be able to carry two of them down. She poured one of them into the other, filling it so the level was near the top, and put the empty bowl underneath the full one.

Then, just as she was about to walk back towards the tunnel, a knock came at the door. She looked over at it, a look of confusion coming across her face. Why was there someone at her door? Who would be mad enough to come over to her house now? She put the two bowls down on the floor and fluttered over to the door and opened it.

"Terence," she said when she saw him standing there.

"Hey, Tink," he replied. "How's it going?"

"Well, It's going fine. I was just getting water, which is what you should be doing,"

"I did, but I could only get a bowl full. The other dust keepers had already taken the rest by the time I collected some food,"

"Alright. Look, Terence, you better find someplace, you better get into a…tree top or in a cave or something near your house and-"

"No, Tinkerbell," he interrupted her, walking in and closing the door behind him. "Don't you remember, there's not a lot to hide in or under around where I live. Plus, I live near the border of the hollow and there's no doubt that's where the Kyzua will hit first when they get here,"

"Terence, c'mon,"

"Tinkerbell, can I come over here and into the shelter with you guys?" he asked, a hint of hope within his voice.

Tinkerbell went a little wide-eyed. "Over here?" she repeated.

"Well, Tink, I've just told you, I don't have anywhere else to go. I tried to look but there were nowhere else and there's barely any near where I live to hide,"

She shook her head a little in disbelief. "Oh, Terence. Uh…y-you can use the cave bit in front of the shelter,"

She rushed over to the bowls and hovered with them down into the cave but Terence, who climbed down the ladder, stopped her.

"Wait, Tinkerbell!" he said, grabbing her by the arm and she turned to look at him. "Your cave? It's-It's not gonna be much protection if they get down here. I don't have anywhere else to go,"

"I'm sorry, Terence, but I don't have enough room in that shelter," Tinkerbell told him. "Me, Bobble, Clank and Fairy Mary built it for us and plus, we built it on a size for four people! And we don't have enough food or water or medicine,"

"Well, I'll bring my own food and my own water. I-I-I'll sleep on the floor or standing up if necessary-"

"No! I'm sorry, Terence," she went to move back towards the shelter but he stopped her.

"No, Tink, please. You've got to help me! I want to stay alive as much as you do!"

"What about air, Terence? The air filter in there is built to supply three to four people. Will you bring your own air?"

"Well…well, j-just give me a chance, please,"

"No! No!" She moved back towards the shelter again, but Terence, who was beginning to grow slightly hysterical, stopped her.

"Look, Tink, please! I'm begging you! It'll only be for a while and then I'll go when It's over!"

"I can't risk it, Terence!" she half-shouted at him. "Look, when that door gets closed and locked, it stays that way. They'll be all over this place soon with daggers and sharp claws and minds to kill and loot and…who knows what else! I'm sorry, Terence, It's just simply out of my hands. We built that thing for us!"

"What about your friends?" he asked her. "Are you just gonna leave us to die at the hands of the Kyzua?"

"I wish I could help you guys, but neither I or any Tinker fairy, even if we all work together, can build a shelter in the space of half an hour, Terence! Believe me, I wish could help you guys, but right now, I have to worry about the three already in the shelter! I'm sorry, I really am!" her voice began to break a little whilst Terence looked at her in disbelief, but how could she help him? It was just out of her hands. 

"I have to get into the shelter, Terence," she told him after a moment's silence between them. "And you need to get out of here and find somewhere to hide!"

"No, Tink," he replied, grabbing her arm tightly as she tried to move back towards the shelter. "D'you think I'm just gonna stand here and wait for those things to come and tear me apart. I'm not gonna do it, Tink!" she began to lose her grip on the bowls. "I'm not gonna do it, Tink!"

He gave her arm a forceful jerk as he spoke the last sentence and, in doing so, she dropped the empty bowl and it cracked as it hit the floor, taking off a large piece of it. She knelt down and picked it up, Terence knelt down beside her, trying to calm down as if he had realised that he had just made her do that.

"I'm sorry, Tink," he said. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me! I didn't mean to do that,"

"Look, Terence," Tinkerbell replied, getting up. "I kept telling you, all of you: get ready. Build a shelter. Forget our gatherings for a few hours a week and try and build something that would protect you from a Kyzua attack. Make the admission to yourself that the worst was possible, but you didn't want to listen, Terence, none of you did! To build a shelter was to admit to the kind of age we lived in and accept the danger that was hanging over our heads, but none of you had the guts to face that!"

"Look, Tink-"

"I'm sorry, but you've got to face something far worse, Terence. Oh, please Season spirits protect you, Terence. It's just out of my hands! It's simply out of my hands," she rushed over towards the shelter.

"Wait, Tink!" Terence cried as he followed her.

"It's got to be the spirits, Terence!" she told him. "It's got to be the spirits!"

She shut the door and a loud clank emitted from the other side. Terence shook the door slightly, but it was useless. It was very strong and it would take more than him to break it down.

"Tink!" he mumbled as he slid down to the floor onto his knees, staring at the door in disbelief.

Never before had he expected this of her, or anyone for that matter, but her especially. She was his best friend and now, all of a sudden, she was telling him that she could not help him. It was just…unimaginable to think of, let alone believe it was happening.

As he stood up, he heard the ladder shake a little and looked to see a male fairy with orange hair and dressed in an orange leaf top and trousers climb down the ladder to the bottom, a female fairy with an orange top and trousers with orange hair in a ponytail, right behind him. A firefly flew down next to them.

"Buck, Fawn, Blaze," Terence said as he got up.

"Terence," Buck said. "W-where's Tinkerbell and Bobble and Clank and Fairy Mary?" he asked.

"They're already in the shelter," he answered.

"Damn, I thought they'd be in the shelter and I was right," Fawn said.

"W-well, she's got to let us in," Buck said. "We have Blaze here and Cheese is upstairs in the house and we don't have anything to defend ourselves with or anywhere to hide,"

"I can't help you guys," Terence said.

"Is she in there?" Fawn asked him.

"Yeah, she's in there," he replied, walking past them toward the ladder and climbing up it towards the room at the top. Fawn rushed over to the shelter door.

"Tinkerbell, It's Fawn. Buck, Blaze and Cheese are here with us," she said.

Blaze gave a worried squeak and Buck rested a hand on his back. "It's okay, Blaze," he said. "Don't worry,"

"Tinkerbell," Fawn said, resting her hands on the door. "Please, please let us in,"

Inside the shelter, Tinkerbell lit a small lamp she had gotten out from her tool chest, lighting up the shelter and looked towards the door, the others doing to same.

"Fawn, I can't," she replied. "I can't help you guys. I would if I could, I swear to you I would if I had the chance,"

"Tinkerbell, please," Fawn said, her voice growing desperate as she lightly tapped the door with her hand as if she was trying to make her way through it. "It's Fawn. It's your friend,"

"Fawn! Trust me, I can't," Tinkerbell replied, her voice growing a little desperate as well of the fact she had to do this to her friends. "I can't. Do you understand? I can't, and I won't,"

Fawn could not believe what she was hearing. This was her friend, Tinkerbell. She was practically one of her best friends. And now she was leaving her and the others out to die! It was unbelievable!

"I feel sorry for you then," she said. "You probably might survive, but you'll have blood on your hands from those you once knew," she paused for a moment, lowering her head slightly and breathing heavily as if she was trying not to throw up. Then, she raised her head and her mixed feelings of sadness and anger and disbelief suddenly exploded: "YOUR MY FRIEND, TINKERBLL!" she screamed, pounding her fists onto the door. "YOUR SUPPOSED TO HELP YOUR FRIENDS!"

Inside the shelter, Bobble, Clank and Fairy Mary stared at each other with disbelief in their eyes. Never before had they expected this. People who were their friends, people that were like family to them, they were having to leave them to die. It was something they did not like, but it was just the truth they could not let them in. The shelter, even though it was big enough, they could not all fit in here.

The three looked at Tinkerbell, who was staring down at the floor to her side with hopeless eyes. It was hard to imagine this, but it was truly happening. She was having to refuse to help her friends. She wanted to tear herself apart for doing such a thing, but then again, she wanted to live. Even if she let them in, the air filter in the room would drop quickly and they could not risk opening the door to allow air in because that would risk exposing themselves to the Kyzua and getting themselves killed. This seemed the only solution. It was a truly horrible one, but it was the only one.

"That was a million years ago," she muttered, staring at the floor with wide eyes. "A million years ago,"

Even though that was obviously not true and it had been about half an hour or so, it just felt like forever since they had heard of the coming threat to the hollow. Then again, with any situation like this, it would always feel this way.

After a moment, she looked up at the door as if looking right through it at Fawn.

"Fawn!" she said. "Get out of here! Do you hear me? Get out of here and find somewhere to hide!"

Outside the shelter, Fawn, who had collapsed onto her knees, began to sob a little, knowing that her friend, someone who she had expected to help her in any way, was leaving her, Buck and her two animal friends, both of who were also Tinkerbell's friends, to die at the hands of the Kyzua when they arrived. A tear ran down her face, knowing that she could well and truly die very soon.

Buck walked over to her and knelt down next to her, resting a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him to see the disbelieved look on his face. He too could not believe Tinkerbell was doing this to them, but there was nothing they could do.

"Let's go," Fawn said to Buck after a few moments and she got up and led him and Blaze over to the ladder.

They were on their own for now.


	5. The Shelter P5

The field mouse Cheese moved from the hole as Buck climbed out back into the house and knelt down and held out his hand for Fawn as she climbed up the ladder. She took it and he pulled her out; Blaze following close behind.

"Are you alright, Cheese?" Buck asked him, to which the mouse gave a little nod, but he looked a little confused, worried even as if he was wondering what they were going to do. He had heard what had happened down there in the tunnel and knew very well that they were on their own, but the others were just as stumped as he was. What were they to do?

"And she slammed the door right in my face," the four heard Terence's voice say from outside the house. They rushed over to the door to see him standing outside on the trunk with his back to them and he was talking to Silvermist, who was holding a water beetle, which she was looking after as it had been sick and she was nursing it to recovery, and Iridessa.

"Terence, we have to go back and ask her again," Iridessa said, but Terence shook his head.

"There's no point, Iridessa," he told her. "We have to go,"

"Terence, we have to ask her again!" she pleaded, her voice growing desperate.

"I told you, Iridessa: there's no point," he repeated.

"Guys," Silvermist said, looking up at the group at the entrance to Tinkerbell's house. She, Terence and Iridessa flew over to them. "Have you had any luck?" she asked them.

"No," Fawn answered, shaking her head. "I tried to persuade her but she wouldn't listen to me!"

"Come on, Vidia! Are you sure this is such a good idea?"

The group looked away from the house to see three more fairies approaching. It was Vidia, Chloe and Rosetta.

"Look, we have to try!" Vidia was saying.

"Look, please, let's just go back and hide!" Rosetta pleaded with her.

"No, there's no time. There'll be here soon and the shelter is the best place we can hide fr-"

"There's no point, Tinkerbell won't let anybody in," Terence said to the three when they reached the door, stopping them.

Rosetta and Chloe have each other scared looks. "So what do we do?" Chloe asked.

"I'll tell you what we ought to do," Terence replied. "We have to find a hiding place, like in a workshop or a cave or somewhere and go to work on that. Get some sticks and leafs for walls and pour all of stuff into it, food, water, everything,"

Iridessa sighed. "It just isn't fair! Those four are sitting down there in that shelter perfectly safe whilst we have to stand around and wait for those monsters to come and kill us!"

"Why don't we just go in there and break down the door," Vidia piped up angrily, pushing past the others into the house as she flew over to the hole, the others right behind her. Rosetta, Chloe and Iridessa moved to one side whilst Silvermist fluttered behind Vidia, holding the water beetle tightly as it was snuggling up into her arms like a baby. Fawn, Buck, Blaze and Cheese stood near the door.

"No, Vidia, wait!" Terence called, flying over to Vidia. He grabbed her by the arm just as she was about to climb down the hole but she shook it out of his grip.

"What are you doing, Terence?" she hissed.

"Trying to make you see reason," he replied. "We can't all fit in that shelter. We'd be crazy enough to even try,"

"Guys, look," Fawn piped up. "Look…w-why don't we pick out a friend o-o-or a group of friends. Draw lots or something," she suggested.

"Fawn, I keep telling you, It'll be no good, she won't let anybody into the shelter," Terence replied.

"Wait, we could all go down there and say she has the entire hollow up against her," Vidia suggested. "We could do that,"

"What good will it do, Vidia?" Terence asked. "I keep telling you, even if you break down the door, we can't all fit in that bomb shelter. We'd be killing everybody for no reason,"

"Terence, if it saves the life of at least person and animal in here, I call _that _good reason," Silvermist told him sternly.

"Terence, you're her best friend," Buck said. "Go down there. Talk to her, plead with her. Tell her to pick out one group of friends. W-we'll…we'll draw lots or-or something,"

The groups' attention turned to Terence as he stood there, looking at them from one to another. What was he to do? He had just said that it was going to be useless in trying to go down there and convince Tinkerbell to let them in or at least talk to them, but it was just as bad if he decided not to. What was he to do?

Just then, Vidia stepped forward past him. "One group of friends," she repeated threateningly at Buck. "And I suppose that means you guys, huh?" her hands clenched into fists.

"Well, w-why not?" Fawn asked, a little nervous but stepping forward to try and act as if she was not afraid of Vidia's threatening look. "We've got two animals here,"

"Fawn, that doesn't mean they're more precious or important than any other animal like my water beetle," Silvermist barked at her.

"Sil, I never said that!" Fawn argued back. "Look, if you guys are going to argue about who gets to live more than the next person-"

"Shut up, Fawn!" Vidia shouted, startling most of the people in the room.

"Vidia calm down," Terence pleaded, trying to stop this argument from degenerating into a fight.

"Shut up, Terence!" she spat at him before turning her anger back towards Fawn and Buck. "You guys are at the bottom of my list!" she growled. "If you keep this up, I'll make sure you guys get left up here!"

Fawn glared at her. "Why you little…!" she growled, going red in the face, much like what was going on with Vidia. Suddenly, she lunged towards Vidia, her hands clenched into fists and every muscle rearing to hurt her, which they would have done if Buck had not grabbed her around the waist and held her back as she kicked violently to break free from him. Terence did the same with Vidia and had to hold on tight and lower his head as she swung her fists around madly.

"Alright, stop it!" he shouted, dropping Vidia to one side and standing in between her and Fawn, who Buck gingerly set down onto the floor, both her and Vidia glaring at each other. "At this rate, we won't need to worry about the Kyzua. We'll be slaughtering each other!"

"Fawn," Buck said, resting a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. "You have to go down there and ask Tinkerbell again to let us in," he pleaded.

"I already tried to do that, Buck," she told him. "It just won't work. She-"

Suddenly, a loud horn filled the air. Even though the door was closed, the group heard it as if it was right next to them. Panic began to fill them like water filling up a tank. That horn was used for warnings and right now, it could mean only one thing.

"C'mon, Vidia, let's go take a look," Terence said, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her outside, probably to stop her from snapping at anyone else.

When they reached the door and opened it, they gazed out into the darkness. It was almost completely pitch black. Even the stars were now shining less as if they too were hiding from the threat that was coming. Terence and Vidia could only imagine the terror that was taking place on the outer areas of the hollow.

Then, they saw a glimmer of light approaching them and a second later, Lyria appeared out of the darkness. She gasped in surprise when she saw them.

"W-what are you lot doing here?" she asked.

"It's Tinkerbell," Vidia explained. "She, Bobble, Clank and Fairy Mary have got themselves locked in that shelter in the trunk and they won't let anyone in," Lyria stared at her and Terence worryingly. He had come over here to try and see if Tinkerbell would let her in, but now it seemed her hopes had been dashed.

"D'you know what," Vidia said. "I don't care what the rest of you guys think, I'm going down there to that shelter!"

She marched off back into the house. "Vidia's right," Lyria said to Terence. "Let's go,"

She followed close behind Vidia with Terence bringing up the rear. The others, seeing that their friends were heading into the tunnel, decided to follow. They climbed down the ladder to the cave.

"Chloe, stay up there with Blaze and Cheese," Terence called up to her and she nodded.

When the group had reached the cave, Vidia marched over to the shelter door and pounded her fist on it. Lyria and Terence stopped either side of her.

"Tinkerbell!" Vidia shouted. "Tinkerbell, this is Vidia! You've got your friends here who want to try and survive! Now you can open that door and talk to us and try and figure out how many of us can come in there! Or you can keep doing what you're doing and we'll _bust_(she pounded her fist on the door) our way in there!"

"Tinkerbell, It's Terence. If you can hear me, they mean business out here!" Terence said to her.

_"And I mean business in here, Terence!" _they heard her reply. _"I've already told you guys: your all wasting time! You're wasting precious and valuable time that you could use for something else, like figuring out how you can survive!"_

Vidia sighed through gritted teeth whilst the others gave each other concerned or angry looks. Tinkerbell was not going to try and reason with them. So that put Vidia's first option of how they could solve this out of the window. There only one other option they could resort to now.

"We need to break this thing down," Vidia said to the others as she turned to face them.

"Hey, what about the storm fairies?" Lyria suggested, drawing everyone else's gaze. "When I was coming over here, I saw them in a tree top but they were a bit wary about it. Maybe we could get one of them to use their lightning bolt to smash the door,"

"No, no!" Vidia told her. "We can't do that. That'll get them on the act as well. We'd have a mob to contend with!"

"She's right," Rosetta piped up, filled with the will to survive and forget the other fairies in the hollow. On the ones here mattered! "What right do they have to come here? We've known Tinkerbell longer and best. This isn't their shelter!"

Terence stared at her, breathless with shock. "Oh, this is our shelter, is it?" he said. "And the other fairies, I bet they're all different people to you all. Can't you guys hear yourselves?"

"Maybe you don't want to live, Terence!" Iridessa cried. "Maybe you don't care!"

He shook his in disbelief at her for what she was saying. "Of course I care!" he snapped at her. "I want to see the morning sun come up too! But you guys are acting like a mob and a mob doesn't have any brains!"

"D'you know what, I say we go to the Tinker workshop and grab something big and heavy there and use it to break down the door," Vidia said. "If anyone sees us, we'll tell them to keep their mouths shut,"

"No, wait a minute guys," Buck said. "Terence is right. We need to think about this and-"

"Nobody cares about what you suggest, you insect hugging freak!" Vidia growled at him through gritted teeth, her fists clenching tightly.

"Look, Vidia, I think we-"

"I think, I think the first thing we should do is get you out of here!" and before Buck could even Blink, Vidia swung her fist at him, hitting in the jaw and sending him to the ground with a yell. Fawn cried in panic and knelt down beside him as he groaned and rubbed his jaw in pain. Vidia stepped towards him to punch him again.

All of a sudden, she was stopped dead when the sound of a horn filled the cave. It was the same one they had heard moments earlier when they were upstairs.

"Guys!" Chloe called from the top of the hole. "We have to hurry!"

Vidia nodded. "Let's go grab a battering ram!" she said to the others. "You've had your chance, Tinkerbell!" she shouted at the door. "Remember that, you've had your chance!" and with that, she ran toward the ladder and began speed climbing it as fast as she could. Silvermist, Rosetta, Iridessa and Lyria followed her. Fawn and Terence helped Buck to his feet and helped him over to the ladder.

Inside the shelter, the four Tinker fairies began to grow worried. Fairy Mary shook her head a little in disbelief over what was happening.

"Tinkerbell," she said, aghast. "Who are those people?"

"Those people," Tinkerbell answered, looking at the head of the Tinker fairies. "Those people are our friends. They're people who we've known for a long time and cared for," she looked back up at the door. "But now they're our greatest danger," she said.

Bobble and Clank looked at each other worryingly. "So what do we do?" Clank asked.

For a moment, Tinkerbell seemed to have not heard him, but she too was asking herself that very question. _What were they to do? _They could not let them into the shelter and now they were under threat if they stayed in here. What were they to do?

Finally, after a moment, Tinkerbell turned to face them. "C'mon," she said. "Let's get some of this stuff over by the door. At least we'll have some protection from when they return,"

The other three nodded and they fluttered over to one of the beds to pick it up and put it against the door.

"We're…in for a…r-rough time now," Bobble said as they picked up the bed and carried it over to the door.


	6. The Shelter P6

And how right Bobble was.

Just minutes later, Vidia, Iridessa, Terence, Fawn, Buck and Lyria were flying back towards the house. However, this time they were carrying a large wooden beam a few inches long, a few metres to the fairies. Rosetta, Silvermist and Chloe waved them in and kept the door to the house and the door to the cave open.

"Alright, c'mon, turn it up!" Vidia ordered as they reached the trap door.

They turned the wooden beam upwards and, with Vidia and Lyria going down first, lowered it down into the cave. When it was near the bottom, Vidia and Lyria turned it diagonally slightly and slid it across the floor as it began to go horizontally straight as the others lowered it down. The rest of the group came down and Terence, Lyria, Vidia, Iridessa, Fawn and Buck picked it up.

"Quick bring it over to the door!" Vidia said.

They obeyed, though it might have been out of their own will to survive rather than fear from Vidia. Leading them, she brought the beam over to the door, stopping just a few inches, or a few feet if you were one of the fairies, from the layer of leaves on the edge of the door.

"Alright, now!"

Inside the shelter, the four Tinker fairies heard the shouting from outside the shelter. Fairy Mary began to whimper and hid behind Tinkerbell, who stared at the door with wide-eyed, as did Bobble and Clank, fearing that the door was going to suddenly burst open and their friends would come charging in here.

Suddenly…_CLANK! _The door seemed to buckle slightly before going straight again, though a dent was easy to make out in the middle of it. _CLANK! _It happened again, though this time, the dent was a little bigger and one of the bits of twig used for the door broke in two and fell to the floor.

"Oh no!" Tinkerbell whispered as the door buckled again, though this time a hole was beginning to form. That door was not going to hold and she was going to have to get something to defend herself and her friends with in case her friends tried to attack them, but what could she use?

Wait! The hammer on the table. She rushed over to it and grabbed it, wielding it like a weapon. She had never hoped to use it against someone, especially her own friends, people who she thought she would never have to harm, but right now there were circumstances that were going to have to make her take extreme measures. She really did not want to do this, but right now she just had no choice.

_SMASH! _The end of the wooden beam smashed right through the centre of the door and withdrew through the hole as if it were a predator attacking something It's prey had built to defend itself and it was trying to find a weakness. Fairy Mary squealed and backed away from the door with Bobble and Clank, who grabbed something to defend themselves with. Bobble grabbed one of the leaf books on the desk whilst Clank grabbed the chair in front of it and both ran up to Tinkerbell, their weapons at the ready.

"C'mon, almost there!" they heard Lyria shout from outside the shelter as the beam struck the door again, tearing off another layer of twigs and ripping one of the leaves on the inside of the shelter off the door.

Tinkerbell swallowed hard. Bobble felt his hands shake from the fear and Clank was breathing heavily. Fairy Mary hid behind Clank, looking over his shoulder with fear in her eyes as the door buckled open again, though this time the hole was made a lot bigger, so much so that the four Tinker fairies could see the faces of their former friends outside the building, but they were no longer filled with happiness of friendship as they had been earlier. They were now contorted into anger, hatred even. They too wanted to survive and right now they did not care if they were scaring their friends half to death, or even _to _death.

_SMASH! _Suddenly, the door burst open, the side attached to the stone wall being half torn off the wall along with the other side of the door.

"Alright, put it down!" Vidia said.

The fairies outside the door dropped the beam onto the floor and charged towards the entrance to the shelter. The door was still attached to the wall but with an opening, the fairies outside were more than ever determined to get inside. Vidia slammed herself against the door, almost forcing off It's hinges, whilst Lyria, Buck and Fawn behind her tried to force it open even more so they could get inside.

"STAY BACK!" Tinkerbell yelled at them, raising her hammer threateningly as she advanced towards them. Her friends at the door looked up with wide-eyes in fear as she approached.

Then, just as she was about to strike them, the sound of a horn sounded from outside. Everyone froze and looked towards the entrance to the cave. Confused looks spread across their faces. Why was another horn sounding again?

Then, a figure appeared out from the tunnel. It was a black male fairy with a dark green leaf shirt and a kind of maroon coloured pair of leaf trousers. It was a scout fairy. He had a relieved look on his face.

"Hey guys," he said. "It's okay! We're safe! We're safe!"

"What?" Buck asked him.

"We're safe," the scout fairy repeated. "It wasn't the Kyzua headed this way! It's a load of fast flying fairies coming back from the other side of the island,"

Upon hearing this, the groups of fairies inside and outside the shelter breathed with sighs of relief and collapsed to the floor, all breathing heavy sighs of relief. The scout fairy chuckled and shot back up into the tunnel and out of sight.

"Thank the season spirits," Fawn said as she got up from the floor, Buck, who was next to her, doing the same. They were safe! It was a false alarm. They were going to be okay.

As the group outside the shelter got up, Vidia, a feeling of guilt sweeping through her, walked over towards Buck.

"Um…Buck," she said. He looked over at her, as did Fawn and pretty much everyone else outside the shelter. "Um…I-I just…wanted to say sorry," she told him. "I…I didn't mean to punch you. I-I mean…we were so scared, so confused! I-I think y-you can understand why I got mad,"

He nodded a little. "It's okay, Vidia," he replied. "I'm sorry as well. I shouldn't have tried to…make you listen,"

"Or try and get us to go into the shelter," Fawn piped up guiltily.

Before Vidia could reply, footsteps from inside the shelter made her and everyone else turn to see Tinkerbell walk out of it, Vidia, Buck and Fawn moving aside to let her pass. However, she did not have a relieved look on her face like all the others did. Hers was more…well blank, but with some kind of emotion there. They knew there was some kind of emotion there, but what?

"I-I we should have…a-some kind of celebration," Vidia said, looking around nervously, trying to get the others to agree. They all felt the same way.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Terence piped up cheerfully. "Anything to get back to normal,"

"We should start planning one right now," Iridessa said. "What do you think, Tinkerbell?" she asked.

Tinkerbell just looked up at her with her blank eyes and shook her head slightly. "No. I wouldn't bother," she answered lowly. "I don't know what normal is anymore,"

She walked past them over towards the ladder but stopped and looked over at it and sighed.

"Tink," Terence said, a little worried. "We're sorry for…what we've done. W-we'll make it up to you. We'll-we'll help you repair the damages," he gave a small chuckle, hoping that would cheer her up, but she just turned and looked at them all, the blank look not leaving her face.

"Damages?" she repeated. She shook her head again. "I don't think the damages here tonight can be repaired," she said. She paused for a moment and looked at them all. "I wonder," she continued. "I wonder if anyone of us here has any idea of what those damages really are,"

The fairies looked guiltily at one another. Even though none of them were saying it, they knew what Tinkerbell meant and they were shocked by it because they had been acting that way tonight.

"Maybe one of us is finding out what we're really like when we're normal," Tinkerbell went on. "The kind of people we are, just underneath the skin. And I mean all of us! A lot of naked, wild animals who will put such a price on staying alive that they'll tear their friends to pieces just for the privilege!" Another pause, followed by a sigh as she looked up at the ceiling of the cave as if she was looking through it and her house right up at the stars and the ever-stretching blackness above. "We were spared an attack from our enemy who we deemed to be our greatest foe. But I wonder-" she looked down at her friends. "I wonder if we've just revealed to ourselves who our real enemy is and if we've not already destroyed ourselves without this attack,"

The group looked at each other guiltily, taking in what Tinkerbell was saying. It made them feel sick to their stomach that they had acted this way, that they had truly revealed that even to their own friends, they would do whatever it took to stay alive, even if it meant going so far as to attack them and hurt them.

As they left the cave and the house, each of them began to wonder the very thing Tinkerbell had said to them back in the cave: _Have we not destroyed ourselves without the apparent attack?_


	7. Story 2: The Hitch hiker P1

**Note: As I said on the first chapter of this Fanfic, each new story has a different background to it.**

If there was one thing that was bad enough about the carts the Tinker fairies made on Neverland, it was that when they broke down, they tended to be tickets to send those driving them to an early grave. However, there were a few lucky ones who had had bad damage suffered to their cart but it had not flipped over or burst into flames or anything like that, and they had remained unhurt.

And today, Rosetta was one of those fairies

Just on the edge of the hollow, on one of the main cut out paths through the grassland that covered most of the island, Rosetta leant on her cart door as she watched a tall Tinker fairy with blonde hair and was dressed in a light green leaf top and dark green leaf trousers fix one of the front wheels. Rosetta's cart was much like the one she had used in the Pixie Hollow Games, only the cart was a little more of a spire shape and the wheels were made of twigs strung together tightly rather than stone. Also, this cart was not one for racing, it was just for driving.

After about ten minutes, the Tinker fairy stood up, a role of a lost thing the Humans used called sellotape in his hand.

"There we go," he said approvingly, admiring his work. In doing so, he got his hand stuck on the sellotape and he had to pull hard to unstick it. "So, how fast were you going, Rosetta?" he asked her.

"Oh, quite fast," she replied. "About as fast as a fast flying fairy could go,"

The Tinker fairy gave a small chuckle. "Speed of a fast flying fairy and a wheel breaks," he said, shaking his head as he rose in eyebrows. "I'm telling ya, Rosetta, you've got a real good luck on your side. Usually an accident like this would be fatal, but…" he gave another small chuckle. "You've outwitted it,"

She smiled. "Thanks, sugarcane," she replied.

"Okay," he said. "There's a Tinker stopping station just up the path. If we go there, I can use a few other tools to make sure that this wheel is fixed,"

"Will it hold out until we get there?" she asked him, a little worried.

"Yeah, of course," he replied reassuringly.

She smiled and got into her cart. As she sat down in her seat, she opened the glove compartment and took out her small mirror in an oyster shell and opened it, admiring herself in the mirror. She smiled as she patted her cheek after having put a layer of makeup on it earlier on just before she left.

"Oh, I look real pretty," she muttered to herself admiringly as she closed the shell and put it back in the glove compartment.

But then, just as she sat back up from closing the glove compartment, she saw someone standing by the edge of the road a little further down from where she was. Looking up, she saw it was a male fairy. He was tall, about the same height as the Tinker fairy who was with her, with black hair and was dressed in a dark brown leaf top, dark brown leaf trousers and had a pair of light brown leaf shoes on his feet, signalling to her that he was likely a scout fairy. The weird thing about him was that he looked…well, very vague as he stood there, staring at the cart, wait no, at Rosetta. She became a little concerned by this, even more so when he raised his hand with his thumb sticking outwards, pointing down the road, meaning he was asking for a lift.

"Okay, Rosetta," the Tinker fairy said as he got into her cart, snapping her out of her staring with a little gasp. "You alright?" he asked her.

She looked at him and blinked a few times. "Yeah, It's alright, hon'," she replied and she started the cart and pushed her foot down onto the accelerator and drove down the path towards the Tinker stopping station.

Behind them on the side of the road, the scout fairy watched them go, but he was not angry or sad or happy that she had driven on past him. He just sighed and raised his eyebrows as if to say _"I was expecting this," _and began to walk down the road after them.


	8. The Hitch hiker P2

**Ten minutes later**

The Tinker stopping station was actually a small cave built into the ground. It had a small house just to the left of the cave, which was built into a section of a tree trunk that stuck out from the main tree, and inside the cave were several pens, which were made of thick twigs and leaves, for carts that needed to be repaired in any way to come in. Outside the cave, to the right of it was a small warehouse, made out of several sticks stuck together with a small tower sticking out of the top to keep an eye out for any hawks that may fly overhead, where different supplies were kept from stones to twigs to seeds to usable leaves. Next door was a small stone building in which there were tables set up outside for fairies to stop and grab something to eat on wherever they were headed. Three more pens were next door to the stone building, each filled with a cart.

At the moment, it was quite busy. A few carts were parked in the pens next to the stone building with about two more in the cave. A few fairies were in the small stone building talking and getting something to eat, whilst other Tinker fairies were inside the cave working on a few carts. One of them was Rosetta's. She had just arrived here a few minutes ago to get the front wheel of her cart fixed. She was standing next to the stone building, her back to the entrance to the stopping station that came off the dirt path, admiring herself in her small mirror she had taken out of her glove compartment when she arrived here in her cart. As she fumbled about with her hair, the Tinker fairy who had accompanied her here walked over.

"Almost done, Rosetta," he said to her.

"Thanks, hun," she replied, smiling. She closed the oyster shell and followed him over to the cave where the cart was.

"Just gotta finish putting on the new wheel," he said as he walked to the front of the cart and knelt down to finish attaching the wooden wheel onto it. As the garden fairy watched him, she felt a bit of her red hair be out of place. She opened up her oyster shell and searched her head to try and flatten the built of hair that was sticking up.

It was then her eyes rested on something near the entrance to the stopping station. Looking at it closely, she saw it was a scout fairy with black hair, dressed in a dark brown leaf top and dark brown leaf trousers and was wearing a pair of light brown shoes. It was that same fairy that she had seen earlier on further down the path. Her eyes went as wide as dinner plates and she slammed the oyster shell with a gasp, her eyes staring ahead with a hint of shock and fear held within them, drawing an odd look from a female Tinker fairy that was walking past with a few twigs in her hands to fix the back of the cart in the next pen to the right of hers.

"Okay," the Tinker fairy at the front of the cart said, getting up from the cart. "Wheel's on, Rosy, so your ride should be easy from now on, as long as you don't go crazy on the pa-" he stopped talking when he saw her staring ahead with wide eyes at the wall as if she was in a trance. "Are you okay, Rosy?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine, sugarcane," she replied. "I-I was just looking at that hitch hiker scout fairy,"

The Tinker fairy looked outside the cave, his eyes going from left to right but he saw nothing. The only fairies he could see were either other Tinker fairies or were the fairies that were getting something to eat at the stone building next to the warehouse. There was no other fairy who he could see was a scout fairy.

"What hitch hiker?" he asked.

Rosetta looked over her shoulder at the land behind her, her eyes searching every inch, but she too could find nothing. The hitch hiker she had seen had disappeared.

"Oh," she said, turning her head back the right way, though she was concerned about seeing him again and then not seeing him all of a sudden when she and the Tinker fairy tried to look for him. "He must have gotten picked up,"

The Tinker fairy shrugged. "Probably,"

Rosetta got into her cart and started it. "Well, thanks, hun," she said.

He raised his hand in reply and smiled at her. "Have a good time at the sanctuary," he called to her and she waved at him in thanks as she reversed and drove off out of the Tinker stopping station and turned left and drove down the path. Where she was heading to was a large garden sanctuary on the other side of Neverland. She had finished her work for the season on the Mainland so she was heading there to have a rest. She had heard it was a good place as many other garden fairies over the years had gone there and said it was a good place to relax. She had always wanted to go there but had never had the chance to, until now and she was going to enjoy it whilst she had the chance.

As she disappeared down the road, she failed to notice the scout fairy standing behind the stone building, watching her go on down the road. He sighed.

"Here we go again," he muttered and walked down the road after her. 


	9. The hitch hiker P3

**Several hours later**

As the day wore on, Rosetta drove on and on towards the sanctuary. Her eagerness was flowing through her. She was really excited to finally get to go to the place of rest that her garden fairy friends had told her about. She needed a good break. The last season summer had been really busy and hardworking and now she had a chance to relax, a chance she was not going to throw away.

However, ever since she had left the Tinker stopping station, she had been growing more and more concerned. It was not that she was worried she would not get there in time or that she was worried her cart would break down again. It was something else. Something that had… Well, just seemed to be following her wherever she went.

Now she was passing through a plain, the mountains of the centre of Neverland standing tall and mighty far ahead of her, the blue sky stretching on as far as they eye could see and the grass that towered over her like a jungle swaying in the light breeze blowing through the air. She sighed lovingly, admiring the beauty of the nature around her. It was so peaceful, so lov-

It was then she saw _him_. Standing by the side of the road, the scout fairy she had seen on the side of the road and at the Tinker stopping station with his thumb pointing down the road as if he was asking for a life, looking straight at her. She drove past him quickly, glancing back at him as he watched her go. He just stood there, looking at her like some kind of statue. A worried look came upon her face as she sat back in her seat, staring a head of her down the path that turned left.

That was the second time she had seen him since she had left the Tinker stopping station. The first time had been when she was driving around a turning and she had seen him standing by the side of the road with his thumb pointing down it just like she had seen him do now. Worry began to fill her. Why was he tailing her? There obviously had to be a reason, but…what?

Then, the worst thoughts her mind could think of were appearing in front of her. What if he was trying to hurt her, or rob her, or steal her cart? Or he might even be stalking her! There just had to be reason to why he was following her. What was really scaring her, though, was that he was able to just appear ahead of her whenever she saw him once. He had appeared ahead of her the last time she had seen her and he had done so again now. What if he was following her?

She turned the corner of the path and drove on, her mind still etched on that scout fairy. Even if any of those thoughts were true, it was hard to accept any of them. For one thing, there was nothing threatening looking about him. He just appeared vague whenever she saw him, just like any normal hitch hiker, just standing there signalling for a lift, but Rosetta feared what would happen if she did offer him a lift. Maybe then the thoughts she was thinking of a minute ago would probably come true. Maybe then he would try and hurt her or rob her or steal her cart…or even kill her!

The very thoughts made her shudder with fear and she looked behind her to see if this fairy was following her. All she saw was the grass and the emptiness of the path she had left behind. There was no one flying above her and there were no other carts following behind her. She breathed a sigh of relief as she looked back ahead of her. For the moment, she was safe, but only if she would not see him again.

**Later that day**

Darkness had now descended over Neverland. The ever stretching blackness mostly dominated the sky, but was in competition with the stars as they shone brightly above the island. It was around this time that most of the animals and fairies across Neverland were beginning to set down for the night.

However, some of the stopping stations were still up and running. In one stopping station, which was built into a tree trunk and was about an hour's drive from the mountains in the centre of the island, it was quite busy. A few fairies were here getting something to eat or had stopped off here for the night.

Inside part of it was a small café, which was a large rectangular shaped room with a few wooden tables along the sides and in the centre. On one of the tables in the centre of the café, Rosetta was sitting at it, looking at a map of Neverland. Next to her on a plate was a small bowl of buttercup soup, her favourite but she had barely touched it. She was not as hungry now as she had been earlier when she arrived. She was still concerned about the trip. Still about him, that very vague and suspicious looking hitch hiker. She had not seen again since midday, which was when she had seen him in on the side of the path in the fields, but she just could not get it out of her head that she would see him again. What if she did? What if next time he tried to attack her?

"You okay, miss?" a voice said, making her jump and she looked up to see a tall black male fairy with a light red leaf top and dark brown leaf shorts standing next to the table.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she replied, giving a small chuckle.

"That's good," he replied. "You looked worried for a moment,"

She shook her head. "Nah, I'm fine, sugar," she said.

He nodded and walked off past the table but as Rosetta looked down at the map, she felt she had to ask him something.

"D'you get many hitch hikers round here?"

He stopped where he was and looked over his shoulder questionably at her. "Hitch hikers. Here?" he gave a small chuckle.

"Rare, huh," she replied.

"Well, yeah," he walked back over to her table. "A guy would be a fool to get picked up here," he told her. "If there's anyone on the paths around here, barely anyone'll pick 'em up,"

Rosetta just stared down at the map for a moment, going over the route she had already been over and also the times when she had seen that hitch hiker. Somehow, she doubted what the fairy here was telling her. If what he was saying was true, then how was that hitch hiker that was following her? There had to be a reason how, and more importantly, which she still did not know, and feared what the answer would be; why was he following her?

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked her.

She snapped out of her trance and smiled uncertainly as she looked up at him. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she replied as she got up. "I've…uh, gotta get goin',"

"But you've barely touched your food," he pointed out.

"Oh, that's alright. It's best I don't eat a lot, I've…uh, I might get sick," she gave a nervous chuckle and quickly hurried out through the open doorway into the darkness outside.

A short male light fairy wearing yellow leaf top and trousers sitting on the table next to the one Rosetta was on looked at the doorway questionably with the fairy who had been speaking to Rosetta.

"Is she alright?" he asked the fairy.

He shrugged. "I hope so," he replied.


	10. The hitch hiker P4

**The next morning**

A mostly sunny day had dawned for Neverland the next day. A few clouds hung in the air, occasionally blocking out the light from the sun, a gentle breeze blew through the air and the fairies across Neverland were busy with their work.

On one of the paths that ran through the centre of Neverland, Rosetta drove her cart near to the bottom of one of the mountains in the middle of Neverland. She had been on the move since last night and had only gotten a few hours' sleep, about four or five at the most. Despite this, she was wide awake and determined to get to that place quickly.

However, the enthusiasm of the approaching rests and relaxation and time off work had almost all but left her now. Now, she was more trying to get there out of fear. Even though she had been on the move, she still kept thinking of that hitch hiker, that scout fairy hitch hiker who has been following her for the past two days across Neverland. She had not seen him last night or for today, at least not so far today, but she just still could not get him out of her mind. She still kept asking herself; _Why is he following me? What does he want? Who is he? _All questions that she could not answer, but there just had to be an explanation.

More importantly, she wanted to know how he had gotten ahead of her so quickly, or at all in fact. When she was going over the map in the café at that Tinker stopping station last night, she had seen on the map that the road she was on was the only one that went to the centre of Neverland right across from the Hollow. There were two others, but they were coastal roads, long distances from the road she was on. There were a few small dirt roads that led through the grass, but they were all really short and did eventually connect back onto the main path, the one she had been driving on. The only alternative she could think of in how he had could get ahead of her whilst not going on the main path was going through the grass, but even this faced difficulties. Most carts, in fact almost all, were not built to cut through grass, at least not for too long and even if this fairy did have a cart that could go through grass, it would have been virtually impossible for him to navigate his way through the grass to know exactly when to stop.

Still, there just had to be reason! How was he doing it? She gave the steering wheel a little thump with her fist as she turned a corner that went around the side of the bottom of the mountain, which was next to a small ravine, a real cliff to fairies and drove on. How was he able to find her and get ahead of her? Did he have a partner working with him? Maybe, but she doubted it and she could not think of any other explanation. Ah! There just had to be another reason.

As she turned left on the road and drove on, she saw a large twig roadblock up ahead and a tall Tinker fairy with blonde hair and brown eyes and dressed in a dark green leaf top and trousers waving his hand at her. She pushed her foot onto the brake and the cart slowed down, stopping about ten feet from him. The fairy walked over to her car.

"Sorry, Miss, you'll have to wait a minute. There's some work going on at a river ahead," he told her.

"Alright, hun," she replied, nodding friendly as he got up and walked past her to signal another cart being driven by a female animal fairy orange hair and was dressed in a pinkish coloured leaf dress with a small belt around her waist, to tell her to stop where she was. Rosetta opened up her cart door. There was no telling how long she would be here for until she could go on so she was going to sit on the back of her cart to get some fresh air from outside her cart.

All of a sudden, as she put her feet on the ground and was about to stand up, she looked over towards the side of the road to her right behind her cart and fear instantly gripped her and she quickly retreated back inside, slamming her cart door quickly, looking ahead with wide, scared eyes. Behind her cart, a scout fairy began to approach it. It was him!

Rosetta began to shake a little with fear as he walked over to her cart, so much so that she could feel sweat dripping down her forehead. He had found her! What was he going to do to her now that she had to stay here until the Tinker fairy said it was okay to go on? Was he going to hurt her? Then again, would he risk anything with other fairies in sight? Even though she was overwhelmed by fear, she was telling herself that, as long as she was here, the fairy would not try anything against her.

The scout fairy stopped when he reached the door to the passenger seat next to her. She tried to not look at him, desperately so as much to not even make eye contact with him.

"Heading across the island?" he inquired friendly.

She shook her head. "No!" she said. "No, I'm not heading across the island," she began to breathe heavy in panic. "I'm not heading across the island, I'm just going up the road a little way!" she cried.

Suddenly, the panic building within her exploded like a bombshell. Quickly, she grabbed the steering wheel and slammed her foot down onto the accelerator. The wheels of the cart screeched loudly as the vehicle shot forward down the road, ploughing through the twig roadblock, breaking it in two and throwing the remains over the side of the cliff, and drove forward down the road towards the turning at the end.

"Hey, miss, stop!" the tinker fairy shouted at her. "Where ya going?"

His attempt to get her to stop failed as her cart screeched around the corner of the road and disappeared behind the mountain, the tinker fairy and the animal fairy in the cart behind him looking down the road in disbelief.


	11. The hitch hiker P5

Near one of the many streams that came out of the mountains in Neverland's centre, which had a large piece of bark going across it to act as a bridge, having fallen from a tree after a recent windstorm in the middle of the island, Rosetta's cart screeched to a halt on the path, almost throwing her forward out of her seat, and she slumped back into it, breathing heavily from shock and shaking a little as she looked out behind her cart to see if that scout fairy was following her. For the moment it was clear and she breathed a sigh of relief as she sat back in her seat.

That was the scariest moment of her life! That scout fairy had been just feet from her. If the other fairies had not seen him or not taken any noticed of him, he could have easily hurt her! It was only by her quick thinking that she had managed to evade him and, by the looks of it, she had given him the slip, for now at least. However, a nasty thought in the back of her head told her that he would find her again and somehow get ahead of her. She began to worry that eventually, he would get to her.

_"Oh, c'mon, don't think about that!" _a voice in her mind seemed to snap at her. _"You're in a cart, he's on foot! He can't get to you!"_

"But what if he does?" she muttered to herself, but was too afraid to know, or even think of the answer.

She sat up in her cart seat and stared ahead down the path that led to the wooden bridge that went across the stream for a moment. Her mind began to wonder what to do now. What was she to do? Was she to go on towards the sanctuary or was she to go back to the hollow. Either way, she feared that this mysterious scout fairy would not stop following her, but at both places she would be around more people and if she was around more people, she would be safe, or she hoped she would.

Finally, she sighed and started her cart again. She had made up her mind. She was going to continue on towards the sanctuary. Hopefully, she would lose this scout fairy that was following her, trying to put the belief that he might continue following her out of her mind. The cart shook a little as she drove forward down the path towards the bridge, glancing left and right as she went to make sure the fairy was not going to sneak up on her.

As the cart came onto the bridge, the wheels of the cart making loud thudding noises as they turned on the wooden surface, a loud spluttering noise came from within the back of the cart. It began to slow down. Rosetta tried to force it on but it suddenly came to a halt in the middle of the bridge and, with a loud splutter, died.

"Oh, great," she groaned, lowering her head onto the steering wheel. "Worst place for the engine to get flooded,"

This was another thing that was wrong with carts on Neverland. The engines tended to get flooded or overheated when the cart had been used for too long and Rosetta had been using it almost non-stop for the past two days. It was going to take a few minutes for the engine to cool down or disperse the flood inside it. Until then, she was stuck on the bridge.

As she raised her head and sat back in her chair, raising her feet in response to her body movement, one of her shoes came off. Sighing in annoyance, Rosetta leant forward and slipped her foot back into her shoe and sat back up.

It was then she froze, looking ahead. There, standing just a few feet from the other side of the bridge, one _him_. It was that scout fairy. He pointed his thumb down the road, smiling friendly at her as if he was welcoming her. Rosetta began to panic and tried to start the cart again but the spluttering sound was all that came from the engine.

"Oh, c'mon! Please!" she begged as she tried to start the cart again, only to get the spluttering noise once again. Fear gripped her and her breathing began to get very quick and short. She just had to get out of here!

**Meanwhile, further up the stream**

The river had a large bend that went right and then left before going straight and disappearing into small field, or forest if you were a fairy, of grass. About half-way down the straight section of the stream that came from the bend was a small wooden dam of twigs, sticks and stones at the bottom and placed at the front and the back on the ground for extra strength. A large twig gate had been built in the middle of the stream to let the water through when the stream level got too low. Several small windows were on the side of the dam as inside it, on either side of the gate were several small rooms. In one just behind the gate in a small section of the dam that ran just above the gate and with a window that overlooked the stream and another window at the back of the room that was just a few feet below the water level and with a large mechanical cog built into the wall next to the window above the gate, a tall female water fairy with light blue hair and was wearing a cyan coloured dress made out of a lily looked out of the window down at the water level. It was getting low and the water level at the back was getting too high.

"Best open the gate," she said to herself.

"Sorry?" a black tinker fairy wearing a dark green leaf top and pair of shorts said as he walked into the room from the corridor leading off on the left wall.

"I said: I best open the gate," the water fairy repeated, looking up at him. "Stream level in front of the dam is getting kind of low,"

The Tinker fairy walked over and looked out of the window down at the stream.

"Yep," he said, looking up at her. "Open it up,"

The water fairy nodded and grabbed the cog and began to turn it. Outside, a loud grinding sound filled the air as the gate outside began to rise out of the water. At once, like a rush of a crowd, the water behind the dam began to flow through the opening and down the stream at a terrific speed downstream.

**Further downstream**

"Oh, c'mon!" Rosetta growled out of fear as she tried to start her cart again, but still the spluttering just came out. She looked up at the scout fairy who was still standing there, his thumb pointing down the path and smiling friendly at her. She tried again, but it still did not work. Oh! It was hopeless! It was absolutely hop-

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound filled her ears and she looked downstream to see a wall of water shoot round the bend and flow downstream towards her. Her breath got caught in her throat as she tried to start her cart again, her face contorting into a look of absolute terror and sweat falling down her forehead like a river.

Fifty feet, Rosetta started the cart again, but spluttering came out. Forty feet, the water was getting closer and the cart was still not going to move. Rosetta pounded it with her fists, almost screaming in terror as she tried desperately to get the cart to start. Thirty feet, the bridge began to shake a little now as the water approached. Rosetta tried to start the cart again, begging with tears almost falling down her face, but to no avail. Twenty feet, the water was now so close the bridge was shaking more than ever and the cart was beginning to rock a little. Rosetta actually tried to shake the steering wheel in an effort to get the cart to move. It wounded crazy, but right now she just wanted to get off the bridge. Ten feet, the river was almost on top of her and getting closer. Looking up with fear, Rosetta closed her eyes as tightly as she could, waiting for the water to smash her and the cart off the bridge and into the depths of the stream below.

All of a sudden, at the last moment just as the wave was about to hit, the cart engine suddenly shot to life and, as Rosetta had her foot on the accelerator, the vehicle shot forward off the bridge and down the path. Literally just in time as the wave slammed into the bark bridge and knocked it off into the water, dragging it down and tearing it up in the depths of the stream.

Rosetta drove on for about another one hundred or so feet before slamming her feet on the brakes, bringing the cart to a screeching halt, throwing her back into her seat with wide eyes. Her body was shaking madly as she stared ahead as if she was in a trance, trying to recover from the shock of what had just happened.

When she finally calmed down, her mind was beginning to go onto the worst possible scenario of what that scout fairy wanted with her and it scared her to the very bones of her body and made them feel like they would crack and shatter into dust.

He had been beckoning her! He-he had wanted her to come forward and he had left her on the bridge for that wave to catch her! He-he wanted her to…to die! He wanted her to die! The thoughts overwhelmed her to the point of where she leaned forward onto the steering wheel, resting her head onto her arms, as tears began to run down her face. She was so scared, frightened, terrified, no…petrified! This was tearing her mind apart! She just did not know what to do!

She lowered her face into her arms, crying silently. She just did not know what to do.


	12. The hitch hiker P6

**Two days later**

Driving through a tunnel with a cart just made Rosetta feel like she was exposed to the outside world, which only heightened her fear of it now, and none of it was helped by the fact that all around her was nothing but darkness. Luckily, though, at the end of the tunnel was the exit out onto the next path and it grew bigger and bigger as if it was growing as she approached it.

However, as Rosetta approached it, her eyes went wide as they rested on a shape on the ground next to the exit of the tunnel. It was the hitch hiker. Fearful for her life, as last time she had almost been killed when her cart had stopped dead on a bridge that the scout fairy was standing near, Rosetta slammed her foot on the accelerator of her cart, causing the vehicle to shoot forward down the path faster. As she passed the hitch hiker, she looked over her shoulder at him to see her staring at the cart as it turned left at a slight bend and the tunnel exit disappeared from sight.

This was starting to terrify Rosetta beyond belief now. She just wanted him to go away, but he just seemed to follow her and be able to locate her no matter where she went. Two days had passed since he had almost made her fall victim to the stream river and since then she had been following a kind of routine. Stop for food and then drive, stop for food and then drive, stop for food…and it just went on. She had barely had any sleep, which was noticeable as there were slight dark rings around her eyes but she was determined, out of fear, to keep going no matter what. This path was no longer a travelling route, it was now an escape route. Oh, she just wanted all this to be over. She just wanted to stop as she could hear her body screaming at her to stop and get some rest, but she ignored it. If there was one thing that was certain to her now, she had to keep going. She _had_ to get to where she was headed.

However, in her mind, a voice was telling her whether going to this place would be any better than it is now. Would it though? Even if she did get to a place where there were more fairies around than out here on the paths, she just kept thinking that the scout fairy would follow her there and continue to follow her around the sanctuary. He would be there when she was relaxing or trying to sleep, or when she was talking with friends there or getting something to eat. No matter what it was she would be doing, he would be there, watching her. Just thinking of it made her shudder with fear.

Trying to push it out of her mind and keep herself focused on the road, she drove on and turned right at another bend, now coming into the middle of the mountains in the centre of Neverland.

**Later that night**

If there were was one thing Rosetta had not tried to do whilst she had been driving for this whole time with the mysterious, and the probably threatening, hitch hiker, it was that she had not taken a side road or an alternative route to try and get to the sanctuary. Partly, that was because there had been few along the route she had been following since she had been at the stream but mainly because she had not thought about it until earlier on in the afternoon and when she had taken a route that came off the right of the main path, she immediately took it, hoping that it would lead her to the sanctuary but also allow her to lose the hitch hiker.

Under the endless stretch of black sky with thousands of tiny stars whining brightly in it, the spluttering from the engine of Rosetta's cart seemed to fill the air as she drove down the short path. The car let out a loud backfiring-like splutter and shook a little as it did.

"No! No!" Rosetta cried, slamming her fist onto the dashboard of the cart just behind the steering wheel.

The cart emitted another splutter and then another before it began to slow down. Rosetta's eyes went as wide as dinner plates, fear filling her like water filling up a tank, knowing that if her cart stopped, she was an easy target for that hitch hiker if he had somehow managed to follow her, which she doubted very much, but then reminded herself that he had managed to follow her for the past few days almost all the way from the edge of the Pixie Hollow border so there was not really much of a reason why he could not easily find her.

Then, the cart began to slow down gradually. She noticed it after a few seconds and began to panic. She started the cart again, slamming her foot on the accelerator several times to get it to go forward, but it did not work. Then, it suddenly stopped.

"Oh, no! Please don't!" Rosetta begged, trying to start her cart again. "Not now!"

She tried again, but her cart would not move. Groaning in fear, she sat back in her seat, her wide-eyes staring in all directions, thinking that the hitch hiker or someone was going to suddenly charge out of the grass at her. Her heart began to beat madly against her chest like a drum as if it was trying to break out and run away itself. 

"I best fix this," Rosetta mumbled to herself, opening her cart door and stepping out into the night.

At once, she felt an immediate wave of fear engulf her like a cloud, knowing that she was very vulnerable. If that hitch hiker, if he had managed to follow her, was nearby, then he could easily attack her. She gulped as she made her way to the side of her cart and, turning her back to the cart so she could keep an eye out for anyone that might attack her, and placed her hands on the side of it and lifted up a small hatch and, quickly, glanced back to reveal the hollow wooden twigs inside the back of the cart, which flowed bee honey into the engine that was on the other side of a small wooden wall, broken. A small pool of honey was on the floor of the back of the car and small drops of it were still falling out from the hollow tubes. 

"Oh great!" she groaned. "And I have no idea how to stop this!"

As she looked inside, she was unaware of a figure approaching her from the grass on the side of the road her. The figure approached her with shuffles of his feet, which she heard when he was about six feet from her. Her heart stopped dead, which she felt was fitting her for at this moment in time, and, slowly and fearfully, turned to face the figure.

"Hey, Rosetta," he said.

The figure was, in fact, a garden fairy. He was slightly taller than Rosetta with short blonde hair, blue eyes and was wearing a kind of pink top made out of a petal and a pair of dark pink trousers. Rosetta breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, did I scare you?" he asked her.

She nodded slightly. "Yeah, you did, sugar," she replied.

"Sorry. What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Oh, my cart broke down," she pointed to the twigs inside the hatch. "And I'm a hurry to get out of here. I'm on my way to the sanctuary on the other side of the island,"

"Hey, I'm headed there as well," he beamed.

"I can give you a lift," she offered. "Well, once the cart's fixed," she added.

"Well, don't worry," he pulled up the sleeves of his top and walked over to the hatch, picking up a small vine from the ground. "I've learnt a few things from the tinkers. I'll have this fixed in no time,"

Rosetta smiled and moved back to allow him to work on the twigs inside the hatch. As he began, she breathed a quiet sigh of relief to herself. If she took him with her, she would be safe. With someone with her, that hitch hiker would not be able to get to her.

Looks like her journey would be a safe on after all.


	13. The hitch hiker P7

**Ten minutes later**

Under the gaze of the night sky, Rosetta drove her cat down the path and away from the mountains in the centre of Neverland that loomed over the landscape like giants. Barely a sound filled the air, save for the gentle breeze blowing through the air and the light clicking from Rosetta's cart engine as the vehicle drove down the path that cut between the forest of grass.

Inside the car, next to her, was the garden fairy who had fixed her cart and who she had said she would take with her to the sanctuary. His name, as he had introduced himself to her just as he finished fixing her cart, was D'lion.

"Thanks again for doing this for me," Rosetta said to him, for the fourth time, as she drove the cart around a right turning onto another path.

"That's alright," he replied. A pause hung between them for a moment before he spoke up again. "Hey, d'you mind if I take my shoes off?" he inquired friendly.

Rosetta, however, did not reply. She was just staring ahead at the sides of the path as the light placed on the front of her cart lit up the way for her, her eyes trailing along them as if she was searching for something.

"Hey, Rosetta?" he said, giving her a little nudge.

She gave a small gasp of surprise and turned her head to look at him. "Sorry?" she asked.

"I said: D'you mind if I take my shoes off?" he repeated.

"Oh. Uh…no, go ahead," she replied, giving him a smile, which he returned.

"Thanks," and he took off his shoes and dropped them onto the space of floor where his feet were. Rosetta resumed looking ahead down the path as she drove on. He did the same, though he could not help but look at her, admiring her. He had really like Rosetta, as did most of the male fairies within the hollow, and now he was with her.

He shifted in his seat and placed one arm on the back of her chair. "Y'know, I feel real lucky at the moment," he said to her. "D'you know why?"

Again, Rosetta did not answer him. Whether she was focused on driving or she was searching the sides of the path to make sure that scout fairy hitch hiker was following her, it was hard to tell.

"I said: d'you know why I feel lucky?" he repeated.

She snapped out of her trance and half turned her head to look at him and focus on the road as well. "Uh…no, why?" she asked.

"Well, It's because I'm sitting next to one of the most beautiful fairies in the hollow and who everyone thinks is an absolute star," he told her.

She gave a small smirk. "Well," she shrugged slightly. "I never thought of it like that," she said to him.

"Oh, no," he replied. "Literally all the guys at the hollow that I know of really like you. I heard one of them say you're like an angel," they smirked. "Which is weird, because I feel the same way about you,"

"Oh, stop it," she said, blushing a little.

"No, I mean it," he insisted.

She blushed even more. She got this a lot from most of the men in Pixie Hollow, but most of the time she just took no notice of it.

"I mean, wait until I tell the guys at the sanctuary about me being with Rosetta on the way to it," D'lion went on. "Though, I do really doubt that any of 'em'll believe me,"

"Well…I can be there to prove it,"

He chuckled. "Maybe, but they might say that you took a different route to the sanctuary,"

They both chuckled and silence fell between them for a moment. Whilst D'lion was looking ahead at the path as they drove over it, he noticed Rosetta look his way, but not with a smile or happiness, but a look that told him she was searching for something, and it was not even directed at him. When she turned to look out her window, he looked out his at the grass they had passed but only saw the outline of it swinging slightly in the darkness breeze. He sat back into his seat, puzzled. What was wrong with her?

When Rosetta looked ahead again, he cleared his throat. "Wha-uh…what's wrong?" he asked her.

She looked at him. "Nothing," she answered quickly.

"No, Rosetta, there's something wrong," he insisted. "There is, I know there is. What is it?" he asked.

She was silent for a moment as if ignoring him, but in fact, she was wondering whether she should tell him about what had been happening.

_Will he even believe me, though? _A voice in her head asked.

_He might do _another voice in her head piped up, as if replying to the other voice. _Or he might call you crazy. _

It was worth a try though. Rosetta breathed in quietly and partially turned her head to look at D'lion.

"Well…" she began, quickly trailing off. "D'lion, do you…believe that if you got into another cart that was…going faster than this one, you could stop off at the next Tinker station or at a random spot somewhere ahead of any other carts?" she asked him, waiting for him to laugh and say she was crazy.

Instead, however, he just shrugged. "I suppose so. Why?"

"Oh…uh, I was just…y'know, just wondering,"

"Kind of a weird thing to be wondering about,"

He and Rosetta laughed a little. "Yeah, I suppose," she replied.

Suddenly, D'lion saw a look of fear and shock etch across Rosetta's face in the blink of an eye and, without warning, she thrust the cart right towards the side of the road. D'lion gasped and grabbed hold of the steering wheel and thrust it the opposite way back onto the path, narrowly avoiding them toppling over onto their side.

"Okay!" he gasped. "W-what happened there?" he asked Rosetta, a little concerned.

Her face was white as if all the colour of her body had been changed to it. Her eyes were open as wide as they could go and her breathing, though steady, was heavy.

"I-I…I'm sorry," she said. "I j-just…, lost it for a moment there,"

D'lion gave a nervous laugh. "Maybe you should let me drive," he insisted.

"No, no," Rosetta reassured him. "I'm fine…trust me, I'm fine," she repeated.

Nervously and hesitantly, D'lion moved released his hands from the steering wheel of the cart and sat back in his seat. Rosetta took a deep breath to calm down.

"I'm sorry," she said to him. "I didn't mean to lose it for a moment there,"

"It's alright," he replied, though his voice told her he was still a little nervous about her driving. "But, y'know if you get tired, you can always ask me to drive,"

She nodded slightly. "Yeah, of cou-"

Suddenly, she gasped and thrust the steering wheel right again, almost throwing D'lion out of his seat with a yell and he lunged forward and thrust the steering wheel left slightly so as not to make the cart go ploughing off the side of the path and slammed his foot on the brake of the cart, narrowly missing Rosetta's foot. The carts' tyres screeched loudly as they brought the vehicle to a halt, throwing the two back into their seats.

D'lion, breathing heavily, turned to look at Rosetta, who was still staring ahead as if she was in a trance.

"Okay, Rosetta!" he said, concerned and angry, but also scared. "What's the matter?" he demanded.

"I-I thought…" she muttered, loud enough for him to hear.

"What! You thought what?" he urged her.

"I thought…if I hit him with my cart, I could kill him," she told him.

"What? Kill who? What are you talking about?"

She turned her head to look at him. "Di-didn't you see that hitch?"

He shook his head. "Hitch hiker? What are you talking about?"

"You must have seen him D'lion!"

He just shook his head. If there was one thing the others had not yet told him about Rosetta, it was that either she barely slept and hallucinated, or she was just plain mad.

"I'm sorry, Rosetta," he said as he opened his car door. "But I am not staying in this car,"

"No!" she exclaimed, grabbing his arm. "No, please, don't go! I-I promise I'll drive more carefully from now on," she told him, desperately hoping that would keep him here with her.

He paused for a moment, looking at her as if he was thinking about her offer. However, to her dismay, he shook his head and moved to get out of the cart.

"I'm sorry, Rosetta," he told her. "But I want to get to the sanctuary in one piece and there is no way that is gonna happen with me being in this cart,"

"No, please!" Rosetta exclaimed. "Please, look. I want you to stay here!" she begged. "I-I promise, I'll take you to the sanctuary and I'll go around with you and prove to wall your friends that you did arrive there with me. I In fact, I stopped because…" she forced a smile onto her face and touched his cheek with her hand. "Because I really like you, sugar,"

Again, however, he shook his head and, moving her hand off his cheek and shaking his arm out of her grasp, got out of the cart. Rosetta crawled forward, grabbing his other arm.

"No, please!" she begged in a panicked voice. "Please! Don't leave me!"

"Look, Rosetta, I'm sorry, but I am not staying in this cart with you," he told her. "I'll find another way there, don't you worry, but as I've said, I won't get being in this thing,"

"No, don't go!" she continued to beg, her voice breaking a little. "Look, I know you may find this crazy, but…but the way I was acting just now…I-it wasn't because I had turned off or anything. T-there's been this man that's been following me since I left the hollow and…and…and I think he's trying to rob me! Or…or hurt me! Please, sugar! Please, don't go!"

D'lion just stared at her with wide eyes. For a moment, he stood still, feeling sorry for her for having to go through this ordeal.

However, he just shook his head and leaned forward into the cart. "I'm just gonna get my shoes," he told her, picking them up before standing over the entrance to the cart, looking down at Rosetta as if he was a master that was about to punish a servant. "Now, listen, Rosetta," he told her. "You don't need a boyfriend or a husband or a lover of anything like that. What you need is a good night sleep, okay. I think you just stop off somewhere and rest your eyes," He closed the door. "I'll…I'll see ya at the sanctuary," and with that he walked off down the path and disappeared into the grass.

"No!" Rosetta cried loudly. "Don't go!" When he disappeared into the grass, she folded her arms on the side of the door and buried her face into them. "Don't go!" she cried, though it was muffled from under her arms.

It was obvious now that she was on her own for her journey.


	14. The hitch hiker P8

**One hour later**

In the distant east of the night sky, a tiny array of colours began to emerge from behind the sea line. Dawn was approaching and within a few hours, it would bring about the arrival of another new day for Neverland. Across the island, several tinker stopping stations were waking up to begin the new day's services for those traveling around the island.

Near one of the tinker stopping stations, which had been built into the trunk of a tree, Rosetta drove her cart into a small pen just outside it. She had driven as fast as she could, as soon as he had pulled herself together, to this place after D'lion had left her in her cart earlier, as she had said to him she had seen that hitch hiker that had been following, but he had insisted he had not seen anyone. As she got out of the cart, she was determined to try and find any other garden fairies and go with them, obviously in her cart, to the sanctuary.

She closed the door of her cart and looked over towards the tree trunk where she could see the doorway and several cut out windows along the sides. A few lights were on inside them and she could hear talking.

"Maybe I can get someone in there to come with me," she muttered to herself hopefully and, quickly glancing around to make sure that the hitch hiker was not following her, she rushed over towards the doorway. When she reached it, passing a poster with something about the sanctuary on it, she breathed in and went to open the do-

Wait, something about the sanctuary? She looked over at the poster and read what was on it.

_Notice: Sanctuary closed for Memorial service _

_We apologize for any inconvenience_

"What the…?" Rosetta muttered. Closed? Why was it closed? More importantly, who was the memorial service for that had caused the sanctuary to close?

"Can you believe it?" a voice said from inside the restaurant, which Rosetta heard through the window next to poster.

Crouching down a little, she moved over to the window and tilted her head slightly so her ear was pointing towards it and listened to what was being said.

"I happened all of a sudden," another voice, a woman's, replied. "I never expected it,"

"I don't think anyone did," a third voice said, which Rosetta immediately recognized.

She rose up a little and looked inside to see three fairies, two garden, one of them a woman, and one light, sitting down at the table at the other end of the restaurant. The light fairy, a male, was a tall fairy with a kind of light blonde hair, brown eyes and was wearing a yellow leaf top and shorts, the female garden fairy was shorter with chestnut coloured hair tied in a kind of bun with a vine hairband and dressed in a pink leaf, which it had been dyed to, dress and the other garden fairy, a male, was quite tall, a little taller than Rosetta, with short blonde hair, blue eyes and was wearing a kind of pink top made out of a petal and a pair of dark pink trousers. It was D'lion! Well, that explained how she recognized his voice.

"How did they say it happened again?" the light fairy asked.

"Her cart tire blowing out and it flipped over," the woman garden fairy explained. "It was so sudden; It's taken them this long to get it around everywhere to everyone,"

Rosetta listened to their conversation with a confused mind. Who were they talking about? The fairy obviously had to be well known, but who?

"Can't believe Rosetta's gone," D'lion said sadly. The other two nodded. She had been a well-known and now she had suddenly died in a cart accident. "Y'know, I had the weirdest dream," he said to them and they looked up at him. "I dreamt I was with her in her cart and I had to stop her from driving it off the side of the path and then I left her in the cart and went into a field of grass. What's really weird is that I woke in a field of grass,"

"You might have been sleep walking," the light fairy told him.

D'lion shrugged. "Probably,"

Outside, Rosetta was staring ahead at the ground with wide-eyes, overcome with shock and disbelief over what she had just heard. What? How could what they had just said be true? She was right here! How could she be dead? 

It was then she…well, probably realised something. Maybe that time she had had that cart accident, it had been so quick that it did not look like she had died and…well, maybe she just refused to accept it until…well, until now.

She sighed and stood up. It was really odd now. She just felt…empty. No fear, or sadness or shock over what she had just heard. She just felt like an empty, cold shell. Slowly, she walked back over to her cart, thinking of this. All this time she had been dead, but had just refused to accept it and it just had to be this way until she heard it for herself. It was strange, very strange.

As she reached her cart, she realised something else as well. Looking out into the field of grass on the other side of the path, she remembered that hitch hiker. He had been following her ever since she had left the place where her cart tire had blown out. Now, somewhere out there, among the many miles of grass, trees and hills and under the watchful gaze of the star filled night sky, he was waiting for her. She would find out what it was he wanted, but…going over what she had heard and realising everything now…maybe she knew.

She opened her cart door and closed it, looking ahead emptily, knowing that she had to leave here now. Not just the tinker stopping station, but Neverland as a whole and go with him. First of all, she just had to find that hitch hiker.

She leant forward and opened the glove compartment. The oyster shell with the mirror fell out of it towards the ground, but just as it did, a hand caught it. Rosetta's eyes followed the hand up an arm and then onto a body. It was him, the scout fairy hitch hiker. He closed the glove compartment and placed the oyster shell in her hand and looked up at her.

"I believe you're going…my way?" he inquired friendly.

Rosetta sighed and looked up through at the night sky above her, knowing now it was time for her to leave with him.


	15. Story 3: The Purple Testament P1

It was another hard working day for the fairies on Neverland. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing through the air and it was warm. Spring was coming to an end and summer was about a week away so the fairies were preparing for the busy months ahead of them.

Near one of the many ponds that were scattered about in Pixie Hollow, the water fairies were hard at work in practising for when they would be bringing the nature of summer to the mainland. Some water fairies were collecting dot drops from the plants that lined the outside of the pond, though they had to be careful because of several thorns that had fallen into the pond from an old thorn bush that had been removed by the garden fairies earlier on in the spring, whilst others were teaching insect water skaters to move gracefully across the surface of the pond.

Among them was Silvermist. She was teaching one of the water beetles to swim. At the moment, it was slowly getting the hang of it.

"That's good," Silvermist said approvingly to the beetle, which was standing in a shallow part of the pond. "You just need to practice moving your arms a little more. Like this…" she began moving in a circle whilst moving her head from side to side with each stroke of her arm. "You'll move quicker and stay up on the surface longer then," she said.

The beetle nodded and gave a squeak in reply. It moved back into the water and began to copy Silvermist, swinging It's arm over It's head as it moved. She followed just above him, ready to grab him just in case he suddenly stopped and sank, as he had done several times when they started.

"That's it!" she said happily. "Go on! You're doing great!"

The beetle reached the bank of a small bulge of sand that came into the pond and walked off onto it, shaking itself dry.

"That was really good," Silvermist said, sitting down next to the beetle. "You're starting to get the hang of it. You'll be ready to swim with the others soon,"

The beetle gave an excited squeak and jumped up and down a few times. Silvermist laughed.

"How's it going, Sil?" a voice asked her and she looked up to see a male water fairy with short dark blue hair, blue eyes and was dressed in a lily sleeveless top and shorts and was carrying a bag full of thorns, the sharp ends sticking out of the top,

"It's going okay, Tsu," she replied. "He's getting the hang of it,"

Tsu smiled and leant in forward. "Keep practising and you'll be able to join your friends," he said encouragingly to the beetle, who replied with a nod and a squeak. "Right, I've gotta keep collecting the thorns from the pond,"

Silvermist nodded, but then, just as she looked up at him, she saw something strange on him. All of sudden, his face seemed to light up bright purple colour for a split second before disappearing in the blink of an eye. Silvermist gave him a confused look. What was that?

"You okay, Sil?" he asked her.

She shook her head and blinked several times, snapping herself out of her trance. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she said. "Just lost it for a second there,"

"Oh, okay," he replied and he flew off over to the other side of the pond and began to collect the thorns from underneath the pebbles and fallen branches and leaves under the water and placed them in the sack.

"Okay, little guy," Silvermist said to the beetle. "D'you wanna have any try and see if you can go faster?" she asked him.

The beetle nodded and turned and jumped back into the water and began to swim across it towards the bank. Silvermist chuckled.

"Very eager," she muttered to herself.

"OW!" Tsu suddenly shouted from the other side of the pond, drawing the attention of about every fairy in the pond, who flew over to him.

"You alright, Tsu?" a woman water fairy with light blue/light green hair, green eyes and was dressed in a water lily dress.

"Argh! Yeah!" he replied, clasping his hand around the thumb on his other hand.

"What is it?" Silvermist asked as she flew over.

Tsu showed her his thumb. A small gash was down the side of it and was bleeding a little, a tiny trail of blood falling down his thumb and down the side of his hand.

"Cut it on one of the thorns," he said, wincing a little as the stinging pain from the cut overwhelmed his body.

"You should head over to the healing fairies and let 'em fix it," another water fairy, a man with black hair, magenta coloured eyes and was dressed in a short sleeved dark blue leaf top and a pair of dark blue leaf trousers, said.

Tsu nodded and flew away from the pond and over a small field of grass nearby. The other fairies immediately went back to their work.

"That was a bit of bad luck for him," the woman water fairy, who ask Tsu if he was alright, said to Silvermist.

She nodded and hovered back over to the beetle, who was sitting on the bank of the pond, to begin his swimming again.


	16. The Purple Testament P2

**The next day**

Another bright and sunny day had dawned for the island of Neverland and with summer approaching quickly, all fairies were now working at full steam and making preparations to go to the mainland. For the light fairies, it was an especially busy time for summer was the best part of the year where they had to use all the light they could get to bring about the season to the mainland, right from dawn through to dusk.

For Silvermist, it was a busy time as well, but not as it usually was when in spring. Today, her friend Iridessa and a group of light fairies were working near a pond where Silvermist was at. She had been up quite early this morning at work, mostly teaching the water beetle from yesterday how to properly swim, which she had succeeded in improving it on.

Now, however, she was helping Iridessa with her rainbows.

"There you go, Iridessa," she called down to her friend hovering below, a rainbow tube in her hand, as she threw up a cloud of water into the air.

She nodded and shot up through it, spreading out her arms so a rainbow trailed behind her in a kind of arch. She then stopped, opened up her rainbow tube and pulled the rainbow into it.

"Thanks, Sil," she said to her.

"No problem," she replied as the two hovered back down towards the ground. "That'll be a good one to release onto the mainland,"

Iridessa nodded. "Yeah it will," she looked down at the tube and sighed happily, knowing she would enjoy releasing the rainbow into the air in just a few days' time. Summer was her favourite season of the year because of the rich light that came with the season, especially at the end of each summer day, though providing it was not raining.

After a moment, Iridessa looked up at Silvermist. "Well, best get back to the others," she said. Her friend nodded and the two flew down to a group of light fairies hovering just above a field of sunflowers, moving the light from the sun over onto the plants.

"How's it going, Sparkle," Iridessa asked a light fairy with short black hair, brown hair and was dressed in a golden coloured leaf dress as she was moving the light from the sun over a pair of sunflowers below her.

"Good, thanks, Iridessa," she replied, smiling at her. "How are the rainbows going?" she asked.

"Good," she replied. "This one'll be a good one to let go onto the mainland when we get there,"

"Oooohh!" Sparkle clapped her hands slightly in an excited manner. "I can't wait, I love rainbows! Hey Silvermist, how are you?" she asked.

"I'm fine, tha-" was all she replied when she suddenly saw something on the fairy's face. It appeared to be lighting up…purple! It was that purple light again. The fairy's face lit up for a split second before going back to It's normal colour. Silvermist went a little wide-eyed, still staring at Sparkle. She and Iridessa noticed this and looked at each other with confused looks.

"Are you okay, Silvermist?" Iridessa asked her.

Silvermist shook her head and blinked several times. "Yeah, yeah," she replied, giving a little laugh. "Sorry, I've been switching off a lot lately," she told them, chuckling.

"You looked like you'd seen something shocking for a moment there," Sparkle told her. "Are you worried about something?"

"Worried? No! No, why would I be worried?" Silvermist told her, trying to sound reassuring. Iridessa and Sparkle did not look thoroughly convinced but said nothing.

"O-okay," Iridessa said, giving Sparkle another confused look. "I'm just gonna deliver this to the summer storehouse. Be back in a sec," and she flew off away from the sunflower field towards the Home Tree in the distance. Sparkle went back to her work in moving the light onto the sunflowers.

Silvermist, however, as she turned and hovered away a little, began to feel a little concerned. That was the second time she had seen that mysterious purple light in the last two days, and what made her more concerned was that the first time she had seen it, a friend of hers had been hurt. At first, she had thought nothing of it, but now that she had seen it again, what if it meant something? Something bad?

Sparkle looked over at Silvermist with a mixture of worry and confusion.

"Why's she acting like this?" she muttered to herself.

As she looked over at Iridessa, she was unaware of another fairy nearby moving the rays of the sun he had towards one sunflower, combining them into one that had not fully grown over the rest of the bunch. However, someone shouted for him and he looked away, still moving the rays.

Then, suddenly…"OOOWWWW! OW! OW!"

Every fairy in the field looked over to see Sparkle with a hand clasped tightly around her arm. The other fairies flew over, as did Silvermist.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Sparkle!" the fairy who had been moving the rays apologized in a panicked voice, afraid he had hurt her.

She winced a little and moved her arm. Silvermist, and pretty much everyone else, went wide-eyes or gasped when they saw a large black mark up her arm. The combined rays had burnt it, though she was lucky her body reactions had saved it from being a serious wound.

"That looks really bad," a fairy, a woman, commented. "You better go to the healing fairies, Sparkle,"

She nodded, wincing and gasping a little as she tried to move her arm, but it felt like someone was sticking a needle through her.

"Hey, is Silvermist alright?" another fairy, a man, asked, pointing over to her. The group look to see her fly off as fast as she could towards the Home Tree. If she were with her, they would be able to see a wide-eyed, panicked expression on her face. A few shouted after her, but she did not hear them.

She passed Iridessa who was flying back over to the field to help with the sunflowers. She shouted after Silvermist but got no reply.

"What's wrong with her?" she asked herself, completely puzzled.


	17. The Purple Testament P3

At the Home Tree was a flurry of activity. Fairies of all talents were rushing around, all busy at work. Near the base of the tree, a few tinker fairies were busy putting together the leaf baskets and such needed for those on the mainland. A group of fast flying fairies shot past the Home tree, making a trail of leaves flow through the air behind them. At the river that flowed past the Home Tree, a few water and garden fairies were at work on the nature around it. All of the preparations of summer were going to plan and although it was busy, everyone was happy.

However, there was one person among all this who was…well, not really unhappy but concerned.

A scout talent woman fairy, who had short brown hair, green eyes and was dressed in a kind of light brownish leaf dress, hovered into the main room within the tree, which was a large dome-like shaped room with several large cylindrical shaped holes along the walls that gave a view of the outside world. The Minister of Autumn, a tall fairy who was dressed in a kind of orange leaf gown with short orange hair and large wings, was talking with Queen Clarion about the preparations for the coming season.

"It is all going well, your Highness," he said to her. "We shall be exactly ready on time for our bringing of summer to the mainland,"

"Excellent," Queen Clarion replied. "Exactly on schedule and everything going smoothly. It will be another good year for the hollow,"

"Minister?" the scout talent fairy asked. He and the queen turned to face her. "I am sorry to disturb your conversation, your Highness, but we have someone who wishes to the minister,"

"Who is it?" the minister asked.

"Silvermist, sir," the fairy told him.

The minister and Queen Clarion gave each other confused looks. Silvermist? What did she need to speak to him about?

After a moment, he nodded. "Very well. Do excuse me, your Highness," he said to the queen, who replied with a nod and he flew off after the scout talent fairy towards the entrance to the room. When he exited it, he saw Silvermist standing by the wooden platform that overlooked much of the hollow. The minister thanked the scout talent fairy, who flew back inside and fluttered over to Silvermist.

"Hello, Silvermist," he said and she turned to face him.

"Hello, minister," she replied, giving a small smile and a little wave. "Sorry I've showed up here all of a sudden,"

"That's okay, Silvermist," he replied. "So tell me; what is the problem?"

She sighed. He probably thought she was going to be crazy but…she just had to tell him. He was helping the minister of summer oversee all the preparations and she was busy somewhere else so he was pretty much the only one she could talk to about this.

"Well…" she began, pausing for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain it. He patiently waited for her answer. "Well…" she said again after a few moments. "It's…this may sound crazy, minister, but…but I've been seeing this…oh, this light lately,"

He gave a slight chuckle. "Silvermist, we've all been seeing this light lately," he told her and she looked up at him with wide-eyes.

"Y-you have?" she asked, a little shocked.

"Well yes," he told her. "We've been seeing the light from the sun and-"

"No, no, no!" Silvermist interrupted him. "Sorry, Minister, b-but I mean… Well, w-when I look at someone, not everyone, but some people…I see this purple light come up onto their faces," The minister gave her a confused look as if to say: _"What is she talking about?" _which did worry Silvermist but she pressed on in her explanation. "What's weird is they can't see it and twice over the last two days, I've seen it,"

The Minister gave a slight nod. "Okay, Silvermist," he replied in a voice that was full of doubt over what it was she was telling him. "Can I ask you: Is this the problem?"

She nodded. "Yes, Minister. I know it sounds crazy, but-but whenever I see this light on the face of a fairy…a few moments after I do something bad happens to them. Like yesterday, I saw this light on my friend Tsu's face over at one of the ponds and a few seconds later, he slices his thumb open collecting thorns from the water. I didn't think nothing of it, but now just now I saw it on the face of Sparkle, one of the light fairies, at the sunflower fields and she gets burned badly on the arm!"

"Okay, Silvermist, calm down. Calm down," the Minister hovered towards her and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Now, there could be rational explanations for these events. Like…oh, um…accidents. Yes, maybe they were just accidents waiting to happen," Silvermist looked up at him. "And there is another reason I can think of, and that is that you have been working very hard lately, Silvermist,"

She looked down at the ground. It was true. She had been getting up early in the morning and working very late into the evening. She had wanted to help very much in the preparations for summer, which she was doing, but was taking it very far.

"Now, Silvermist," the Minister said, gently lifting her head up to look at him with his hand. "You've been working very hard lately. I know you are trying to make a big contribution to the summer preparations, and I very pleased with you. And I think I can say everyone is, but you have been working too much now and sometimes that can lead to stress and hallucinations," Silvermist looked down and gave a slight shrug. Yes, maybe he was right. Maybe she was just working too hard.

"Maybe," she said. She nodded. "Yes, your right, Minister,"

He smiled. "There we go," he said. "Now go home Silvermist and put your feet up and relax for a while. Have a rest and give your head and your body a break from all this,"

She nodded. "I will. Thank you, Minister," she replied and she flew off away from the Home tree in the direction of her house just a little bit away from the Tree. As she went, she thought over what the Minister had told her.

_Yes, he's right _she thought. _I just need some rest, that's all. I've been working too hard. _

Just some rest and relaxation. That was what she needed for now.


	18. The Purple Testament P4

**The next day**

In the Tinker workshop, everyone was busy at work. Tinkerbell was working in the corner of the shop on another creative invention of hers, something to do with keeping back the thistles after a bit of havoc they had caused a few days ago, Bobble and Clank were fixing a wagon wheel that had broken and Fairy Mary was going around making sure that everything was up to date. Even though they were all busy at work, chatter filled the air. It was another hard working day for them all

Then, though the entrance hole that led outside, Silvermist fluttered down towards them, hovering over to Tinkerbell.

"Hey, Tink," she greeted and her tinker fairy friend turned to face her.

"Hey, Silvermist," she replied happily, putting her hammer down and pulling her into a friendly hug. After a moment, she released her. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright," she replied. "I feel a lot better now that I've gotten some rest,"

"Yeah, I heard that the Minister of Autumn had said you'd been working too hard,"

Silvermist shrugged. "Yeah, probably,"

"Miss Bell?" Bobble's voice called and the two looked over to see him walking to them. He smiled when he saw Silvermist. "Ah, Miss Silvermist, hello," he greeted her cheerfully.

"Hey Bobble," she replied, giving a little wave.

"Sorry to disturb your conversation, ladies," he said. "But I was wondering, Miss Bell, if I could quickly borrow that hammer,"

"Sorry, Bobble, but I need it at the moment," she replied apologetically.

"There is another one on the shelf over there, Bobble," Fairy Mary, who had been nearby and had heard him, pointed out, nodding over towards a row of shelves along the wall. He looked, along with Silvermist and Tinkerbell, Silvermist a little wide-eyed, and saw one of the shelves with the stick end of a hammer just visible over the top of the side of it.

"Oh, okay," he said. "Thank you, Fairy Mary," he said to her and walked over to the shelf. Tinkerbell looked back over at Silvermist to resume their conversation, but saw she was walking after Bobble, and it looked she was following him very quickly.

In fact she was. A panicked look had settled across her face. A hint of anxiety lurked in her eyes as she moved quickly ahead of Bobble. She had seen the light on him his face again when he had turned away to look at the shelf and now, by the looks of it, if he went underneath it, he would be in danger. She had to stop him and she was doing that now.

"Wait, Bobble," she said, stopping him.

"Oh, uh…w-what is it, Silvermist?" he asked, a little surprised.

"Are you okay, Silvermist?" Tinkerbell asked.

"Yeah, I-I just…wanted to…uh," she replied, stammering and looking around for a quick reason to explain why she was acting this way. Her eyes rested on the shelf with the hammer. "Wanted to get that hammer for you," she said.

"Oh. Uh, there's really no need, Silvermist,"

"No, I insist," she gave a nervous laugh. "Might as well make myself useful," she laughed nervously again and, grabbed Bobble by the arm and pulled him over to the end of the row of shelves, well away from the one with the hammer. "Just, wait here," she said to him. "And I'll get it for you,"

"Why do I need to wait here?" he asked her.

"Well," she replied, pausing for a moment, her mind racing to come up with a quick excuse to his question. "Because…because I don't want to…accidentally drop the hammer on your head,"

He gave her a questionable loo but said nothing and looked over at Tinkerbell and Clank, who shrugged at him, both as stumped as he was. Why was Silvermist acting this way? Was she still not feeling a hundred percent after the rest she had had yesterday, or was there something else to all this?

Bobble watched as Silvermist hovered up to the shelf and picked up the hammer. As soon as she did, she jerked her head quickly back towards him, a worried look on her face as if something bad was about to happen to him, but nothing did. She sighed in relief and fluttered back down to him.

"Here you go," she said, handing him the hammer.

"Umm…well, thank you, Silvermist," he replied uncertainly. "Really, there was no need for you to do that," he told her.

"No, it was fine," she insisted. "I just wanted to help out," she chuckled for a moment and paused. "Well, um…bye," and she fluttered off back over to Tinkerbell. Bobble gave Clank, who had been watching this, a confused look as if to say: _"What's wrong with her?"_ and he shrugged.

"Um, Silvermist, are you sure you're okay?" Tinkerbell asked her when her friend set herself down on the ground next to her.

"Yeah, yeah, of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" she replied quickly, giving a nervous smile.

Tinkerbell, however, was not convinced. She set down the hammer on the rock she was using as workspace for her invention and faced her friend, folding her arms.

"No, c'mon, Silvermist," she said sternly. "What is it? What's wrong? Why are you acting weird?"

"I'm not acting weird!" Silvermist protested, her voice turning slightly angry at Tinkerbell's accusation. Though, she knew very well that Tinkerbell was right, but would her friend believe her if she told her about what it was she had been seeing? Likely not and she would probably be told to go home and get some rest again by her, like the Minister of Autumn had told her yesterday.

THUD! "OOOWWW!"

The yell filled the workshop and about every fairy looked over to the wall to see a shelf lying on top of Bobble, who was slowly rising up from his face down position on the ground. A hand was clamped over his nose.

"Oh dear, Bobble, are you alright?" Clank exclaimed, rushing over to his friend. Tinkerbell, Silvermist, Fairy Mary and everyone else came over to see if he was alright.

"Ooooh!" was his reply as he got up. He lowered his hand to reveal it slightly covered with blood, small drops of it dripping out of his nose. He brought his other hand up to his nose and touched it lightly and withdrew his hand when a sharp pain flared up from it, groaning a little. "I think It's broken," he muttered, groaning again.

"Oh dear," Fairy Mary said, stepping forward towards him. "Clank, can you take him to the healing fairies?" she asked him.

"Yes, Fairy Mary," he replied and he and Bobble, who was now covering almost his whole face with his hands, hovered up into the air and flew off in the direction of the healing fairies centre near the Home Tree. The fairies began to mutter, wondering if he was going to be okay and how the shelf had suddenly fallen onto him.

"I wonder how it fell onto him," Tinkerbell muttered to herself. "What do you think, Silvermist?" no response. "Silvermist?" 

She turned to see her friend flying away in the direction of her house as fast as she could, a panicked look on her face, which was noticeable through her wide eyes, slightly open mouth as she breathed deeply in shock and that all the colour from her face had literally drained as if it had been sucked out of her. Horrible thoughts were racing through her mind. Not of other fairies or people close to her, but of _her_.

_I'm nothing but bad luck to Pixie Hollow! _She thought terrifyingly. _I'm bad luck! I'm just bad luck!_


	19. The Purple Testament P5

**Later that day**

"C'mon, Silvermist,"

_"No! I'm not coming out!" _

Silvermist's house was made out of a small tree trunk and the inside of a stone, both of which were near a tiny pond which was very beautiful as it shone brightly from the summer light that fell onto it from above. The inside of her house was made out of three rooms. A large front room, located in the trunk, where part of the pond came into her house, which she used to relax in after a hard day's work, a few water lily plants and basic front room furniture such as a table and chairs. A small next of weeds was kept in the corner for when she would look after sick water beetles. The other two rooms were her bedroom, which was in the stone, and the bathroom, which was in the tree trunk.

Right now, however, the wooden door to her room remained closed because she was in there and she was not coming out. A few of her friends, Rosetta, Tinkerbell, Iridessa, Fawn and two other water fairies, one of them a short sea blue haired woman fairy dressed in a dark blue lily and the other a tall man fairy with short black hair and was dressed in a dyed dark blue leaf top and trousers, were standing outside her bedroom door. They had come here when she had turned up for work at the pond, and also to check up on her when Tinkerbell had told everyone that she had flown off in a panicked state after Bobble had broken his nose when a shelf fell onto him, and had discovered she had locked herself in her room and no matter what it was they said to her, she refused to come out.

"Silvermist, hun, come on," Rosetta pleaded with her.

"_No, I'm not coming out. I've told you guys that already," _came her friend's reply.

"Sil, it was just an accident," Tinkerbell said to her. "There's no way you could have caused him to get hurt,"

_"Yes there is. I saw the light on his face and I tried to move him out of danger and he still gets hurt!"_

"Well, like Rosetta said, that could have been an accident!"

"_It wasn't an accident, Tinkerbell! I was me! And I'm telling you guys now, I'm not coming out! I'm just bad luck for Pixie Hollow,"_

"Silvermist, don't talk like that," Iridessa said. "You're not bad luck for the hollow. You're just worried for your friends, like anyone would be,"

_"Yeah, I am, because I'm the one who has to watch them get hurt and now I'm making them get hurt!"_

Iridessa sighed and slammed her hand onto her head. It was hopeless. No matter what they said to try and calm her down or convince her to come out of her room, it was not working.

"Can't you guys say something?" Rosetta asked the two water fairies standing with them. "I mean, you work with her,"

"Like what are we supposed to say?" the man water fairy replied. "You guys are her best friends and you've not fared any better,"

"What on earth is going on?"

The group turned to look at the entrance to Silvermist's house to see the Minister of Autumn standing in the doorway. He had been flying over to check up on Silvermist, as Fairy Mary had told him that she had flown off worried after the accident with Bobble at the tinker workshop, but the group in front of him had beaten him to her.

"Minister," Tinkerbell said, a little surprised to see him here, but she felt like she had to tell him what was going on. "It's Silvermist, minister. She's locked herself in her room and she won't come out,"

He sighed. "Alright, I'll talk to her," he said. "The rest of you…um, go back to work,"

"Are you sure you don't need us here, minister," Iridessa asked him.

He nodded. "I'm sure, Iridessa. Now go on, all of you,"

Reluctantly, the group left the house. When they had all gone, the minister waked over to the door and knocked on it lightly.

"Silvermist?" he said. "It's the minister of Autumn. Open the door, please,"

No response.

"Silvermist, open the door, now," he repeated, his voice now more demanding. "Look, the others have gone. It's just me here. I promise,"

There was still no response. He sighed, annoyed that she was not replying, and went to grab the door knob to force it open, but just as he did, it suddenly turned and the door opened a little to reveal Silvermist sanding there. She poked her head out and looked around, making sure that the minister had not been lying to her about the others not being here. He was not. She opened the door and stepped back into her room. The minister walked in and shut the door behind him. Silvermist's room was a small circular-like shape with her bed being on an oyster shell with a few thick blankets resting in it. A small window looked out to the other ponds near her house. A small wardrobe was placed on the right side of the room with another nest made of water lilies on the floor next to it and on the other side of the room was a small desk with a chair behind it.

"Silvermist," the minister said to her, stopping in front of the door and folding his arms as if he was a parent telling off a child. "What's wrong now?" he asked her sternly. "Why did you come back to your house all worried and frightened?"

She sighed and looked up at him with sad eyes. "I…" she began, but stopped, knowing that he would not accept the fact that she was seeing this strange light on peoples' faces and then witnessing something bad happen to them. "I…" she repeated, but stopped once again.

"Yes, what is it?" he urged her, his voice growing more stern and demanding.

She sighed again. "Minister, It's…It's gonna sound crazy, but…It's the light,"

He sighed and rubbed his hand hard down his face.

_Not this again! _he thought frustratingly. "Now, Silvermist, don't tell me that you've been seeing this silly light on people's faces again,"

She paused for a moment and then nodded. He sighed again.

"For goodness sake, Silvermist!" he growled. "What is it that is wrong with you? Look, there is a logical explanation for this! Now, I'm starting to get the feeling that you are trying to be lazy and-"

"I'm not being lazy, minister!" she interrupted him. "I swear, I'm telling you the truth! I am seeing this light on peoples' faces and they're getting hurt. I mean, just now with Bobble, I saw it on his face and moved him away from what I thought was going to hurt him, but he still gets hurt, only this time It's because of me!" she looked down at the floor and fluttered over to her bed and sat down on it, bringing her knees up to her chest and embracing them tightly. "I'm nothing but bad luck for the hollow!" she said. "Why is this happening to me?"

She lowered her head onto her knees and began to sob. The minister sighed and walked over to her bed and sat down on the end of it.

"Now, Silvermist," he said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Look, you're tired and over-worried," she looked up at him. "You're just worried and hallucinating. Trust me; I go through the same thing when I overwork myself,"

"Look, minister, It's not like that!" she insisted desperately. "I'm telling the truth! I _am_ seeing this light. I swear, I'm not lying to you!"

He shook his head. "Alright, Silvermist, that is enough!" he barked, silencing her. He took a deep breath to calm down. "Now look, Silvermist," he said, trying to be calm, but stern at the same time to let her know he was not going to be soft on her like he had done last time they had talked about this light. "I do not know what is going completely and I do not know whether to believe you or not if you actually are seeing this light! But I will say this, it is starting to annoy me and you are doing yourself no good with it. Now, I want to make this abundantly clear with you. I do not want to hear about this again, from you or from anyone else! Do I make myself clear?"

She paused for a moment, looking at him with disbelief. How could he not believe her? She was never one that told lies or made things up! She was telling the truth!

However, she could not prove it to him and, slowly, she nodded. He nodded back and stood up.

"Good," he said. "Now, you can come back when you've pulled yourself together, but I do not want to hear about this silly light from you or anyone else when you do," he reminded her sternly and walked over to her bedroom door and thrust it open and walked out.

Silvermist sighed and rested her head on the top of her knees. A small tear ran down her cheek from her eyes and stopped at her knees. It was not fair! She was telling the truth! She was not lying! But they would not believe her. For all they knew, she could be lying or hallucinating and would say it was because she had been working from very early in the morning to late at night almost non-stop.

_They're never going to be convinced _she told herself.

And they probably would not be.


	20. The Purple Testament P6

**Several hours later**

It was middle afternoon in the hollow now and everyone was busy at work. With summer only a few days away now, they could not afford to wait around despite most of the work being done. Those who had finished most of their work for what was to be taken to the mainland at the beginning of summer were now helping in preparing for the journey to it. All of the doves were being prepared for the journey that was to take place soon.

However, there was a slight unease in the hollow now. It was not just because of the quickness and all the rushing about with trying to prepare for the coming season, but also because of the rumours that had spread about Pixie Hollow about Silvermist. The stories of her apparently seeing this light on the face of some fairies and then something bad happening to them had, at first, been shaken off. Now, however, with what happened to Bobble and Silvermist's reaction now practically all over the hollow, it had now been taken a bit more seriously by everyone. Some of the fairies had laughed and just said that it was all coincidence that these fairies had been hurt and that Silvermist was either faking it or was really over-worried, but others had did believe that maybe she was onto something as they knew that she was not the one to fake something or lie and those who had been there to see these accidents she had apparently predicted and seen the worry and fear on her face knew that it was just not normal or acting or anything like that. They even feared that they could be next and were raring to ask her if they would be hurt, though they might not get the chance as her friends had told everyone that the minister of autumn had been to her house and had probably told her to drop all this.

At the main pond in Pixie Hollow, the water fairies were busy at work with their last preparations before summer began. With only about four or five days left, they had to be quick so they could leave for the mainland on time. A woman water fairy standing near the side of the pond was training a few water beetles how to swim whilst two men fairies were collecting dote drops from the pond and were steadily and carefully lining it along the lines of the spider webs that were dotted amongst the grass and the surrounding trees. Even though everyone was busy, they were chatting amongst themselves happily as if this was just another normal working day.

Then, all of a sudden, it stopped when a lone figure fluttered down from above and came to rest on the side of the pond, everyone's eyes following her. It was Silvermist. As she landed on the side of the bank, she was fully aware of the fact that everyone was staring at her, but she tried to ignore it, though the saddened look on her face made her fall victim to it, and walked over to the side of the pond where the water beetle she had been teaching how to swim a few days earlier was sitting. Some of the other fairies were beginning to whisper to each other. One of two were smiling and laughing quietly and pointing at her, obviously meaning that they were joking about her and her apparent predictions. Most of the others, though, had uncertain or even concerned looks on their faces. Some were even slowly beginning to move over towards Silvermist, whispering amongst themselves as they got closer to her, wanting to know if…well, what she had said was true or not.

"Hey little guy," Silvermist said softly as she sat down on the ground next to the water beetle, who gave a light squeal and jumped with delight upon seeing her again. "Have you been practicing whilst I've been gone?" she asked him to which he nodded at and she smiled. "That's good. Do you wanna show me how good you are?"

The beetle nodded excitedly and somersaulted backwards into the pond and began to swim ahead towards the other side. He began to breath stroke very quickly. Silvermist giggled a little. He had learned a lot. She then sighed. Even though it had been a few scary and heart pounding days for her, she was glad she was getting back into her normal routine. Maybe things would pick up a little from here o-

"Um, Silvermist?"

Upon hearing the voice calling her name, she looked over her shoulder to see a group of three water fairy girls standing behind her. They all had concerned looks on their faces as if they had something to say to her but they were afraid to say it.

One of the girls stepped forward. She was a short fairy, just slightly shorter than Silvermist, with light blue hair that cascaded down her back, dark blue sea eyes and was dressed in a water lily dress.

"Um, Silvermist," she said nervously, rubbing her hands, which were slightly shaking, together. "I…w-we need to ask you…um…i-i-is it…true? What you're saying to about you're…predictions?"

Silvermist stared at her with wide-eyes for a moment before they turned down to look at the ground. Was she to tell her the truth or say no? She began to think of the consequences of either way. If she said yes then the fairies who believed her would probably grow panicked and the minister of autumn would probably get angry at her, but if she said no then she would probably receive lots of questions from the fairies who did believe her about why she was lying and she would probably be a laughing stalk. Not that she cared, but right now, she just really did not need it.

"Well, is it?" the fairy asked her again, waiting worryingly for an answer.

"What's going on over here?" a voice barked, making them jump and the minister of autumn, who had been flying by to check up on the preparations and had seen the water fairy over here with Silvermist, and also seeing that neither were getting on with their work, walked over, folding his arms when he reached them and giving them a stern look. "What is going on here?" he asked, turning a few heads.

The beetle, which was about half-way across the pond, stopped and watched what was going on.

"I was j-just asking Silvermist, minister, about…about her predictions," the water fairy standing up in front of Silvermist stammered.

"Well, stop it!" the minister barked. "They are not true!" he looked at Silvermist sternly. "Are they!" he said to her.

For a moment, she stared at him sadly and then at the water fairy before she sighed and nodded. "No," she said. "No, they're not,"

"See, there you have it!" the minister said. "Now, come on you two, get back to work. We don't have much time before summer arrives!"

"Yes, minister," the water fairy standing next to him said and she flew off back over to her friends and the returned to collecting the dote drops, muttering amongst themselves. The minister stepped over to Silvermist, looking sternly down at her. She sighed and stood up.

"Now, Silvermist," he said to her. "I hope you are going to make sure that you do not spread the rumour of these predictions among anyone else,"

She shook her head slowly. "No, I won't," she replied. "I'm not going to stop drop it from myself though minis-"

Suddenly, she was cut off when a purple light shined up from behind her for a split second and then faded away. She looked both ways with wide-eyes frantically.

"What is it?" the minister asked her.

"I-I-I-I saw it again!" she gasped. "I saw the light!"

"Silvermist, for the last time, there is no light!" he half shouted at her, drawing the gaze of about everyone around the pond. "Now stop it!"

"No!" she replied worryingly, jumping to her feet. She turned to look at the pond. Just as she did, the beetle, who had begun to swim back to her, suddenly fell to one side, having moved his right arm forward too quickly and straining it, and, with a loud squeak, sank under the surface of the pond.

Silvermist screamed in alarm and dived into the water and swam towards the place where the beetle had gone under, thrashing about wildly and sending water in all directions as she tried to rescue the beetle. The other fairies flew over to the side of the pond and watched.

"What's going on?" one of the water fairies, a man, asked.

"I don't know," another water fairy, a woman, replied.

When Silvermist reached the place where the beetle went under the surface of the pond, she dived under, her eyes searching the murky depths. Even though it was only about three metres, to the fairies, deep, it was quite dark. Luckily, though, she saw the shape of the beetle just below her. She dived down, grabbed it and thrust herself upwards, breathing loudly as her head broke the surface of the pond, her hair draping down her shoulders and . Using one arm and her legs to keep herself afloat, she looked down at the beetle in her arm, and went wide-eyed with panic when she saw It's eyes were closed and it was not moving.

"No!" she gasped.

She clasped her mouth around the beetle's and began to give mouth to mouth medical procedure. After a few moments, she withdrew her mouth to see if it worked, but the beetle still lay there with his eyes closed and head tilted backwards. Panic began to fill her.

"No, c'mon little guy!" she whispered desperately and used her other hand to push down on the beetle's chest hard several times. Then, with a cough, the beetle awoke and threw out a spurt of water, gasping a little. Silvermist breathed a sigh of relief and hugged the beetle tightly as she began to kick her legs and moved back towards the side of the river.

When she reached the river, she stood up and staggered out of the pond, water sliding down her dress and legs. The minister and the other water fairies crowded around her, all of them asking if she was alright and why she looked so afraid, which she did as she looked down at the beetle, who was still breathing quite heavily from almost drowning, and went a little wide-eyed, knowing that she had sent the beetle out into the pond and had almost caused him to drown.

The same thoughts that ran through her head earlier on came into her mind once again.

_I'm nothing but bad luck! _She thought. _It's my fault! I really am nothing but bad luck!_

"Silvermist," the minister said, pushing his way through the group around her and pulling her out of it. He gently took the beetle from her and handed it to a male water fairy. "Take it to the healing fairies," he said and the fairy nodded and flew off to complete the task. The minister turned his attention back to Silvermist and was a little worried when he saw her panicked face. "Silvermist, what's wrong?" he asked her.

"I'm nothing but bad luck!" she whined, stumbling backwards onto the ground against a weed. She embraced her knees tightly and began to rock back and forth a little. "I'm nothing but bad luck! I'm nothing but bad luck!" she repeated over and over, her voice breaking and she began to sob and breathe heavily as if she was having some kind of seizure.

"Silvermist, calm down!" the minister said to her, kneeling down next to her. He tried to soothe her with comforting words, but it did not work. She was having a nervous breakdown by the looks of it and it was a bad one. She continued to repeat she was nothing but bad luck and the minister finally sighed and stood up.

"What's wrong with her, minister?" one of the woman water fairies asked worryingly.

"She's having a nervous breakdown!" the minister told her. "Go and get a healing fairy and tell them to bring a cart," he ordered. The water fairy looked past him at Silvermist and nodded and flew off. "Alright, the rest of you need to go," he said to the other water fairies, who gave each other worried looks and, deciding it was best not to argue, flew off, muttering amongst themselves about what had just happened.

The minister walked back over to Silvermist and sat down next to her as she lowered her head onto her knees and began to sob. He embraced her tightly.

"It's okay, Silvermist," he whispered to her. "It's going to be okay,"

It was really a change of events for the hollow now. So emotionally disturbing how one thing can be to the mind of someone.


	21. The Purple Testament P7

**Ten minutes later**

The healing fairy cart pulled up next to the pond and a woman healing fairy, with short black hair, blue eyes and was wearing a dress that was made out of red and gold coloured leaves stitched together, got out. She was near the pond, which was just on the other side of a small batch of grass. The minister of autumn, who was standing over by the side of the grass, walked over to her.

"Thank you for coming, Ishia," he said to her.

"That's fine minister," she replied. "Where abouts is Silvermist?"

"I had to leave her on her own to meet you. She wanted to be left on her own anyway. Right now, she's sitting by the side of the pond, trying to calm down,"

"Well, I hope she stays that way when I take her back to the hospital. It's bad enough with the trail there already so if she goes crazy, the cart'll be doomed along with everyone in it,"

The minister and Ishia began to walk back towards the grass.

"What exactly is wrong with the way to the hospital?" he asked her.

"There's a half broken large stone on a trunk next to the path," Ishia explained. "The tinkers haven't removed it yet and we can't go another way to the hospital, so I want to be careful and make sure that she's okay so she doesn't go crazy on the way and ends up tipping over the cart and making the boulder fall,"

"Don't worry, she'll be alright," the minister reassured her. "She's calmed down now,"

Ishia nodded. "Let's just hope it stays that way," she muttered.

**Meanwhile, at the pond**

Silvermist sat by the edge of the pond on her knees, gazing ahead blankly at the opposite side as if she was some kind of statue. She felt that way, but instead of being a non-living thing and being placed here to stare ahead at nothing forever, she was alive and displayed that she could move about by looking down at the pond. She sighed, gazing at her reflection on the flat surface of the pond.

It had been a hard few minutes. Although she had calmed down, she just still could not get it out of her head that she felt like she was nothing but bad luck for the hollow. Twice she had made people she was close to get hurt badly and the last one she had almost ended up killing. It was horrible to think about, let alone believe that what had happened was not fake. It was very real and the sad thing was, it was stuck in her mind as if it was placed there to remind her of everything that had happened over the last few days.

_I'm sorry! _She cursed to herself, but speaking to Bobble and the beetle, the two who she had tried to save from being hurt but had ended up inadvertently hurting them herself. _I didn't want this to happen! I wish I could have stopped it!_

But she could not. She wanted to, but she could not and there was nothing she could do about it.

Sighing again, she placed her hand in the water and lowered her head towards it. Her crying and her breakdown had made her a little thirsty so it was best to get a drink now before she left for the hospital, knowing that it would take a while to get there by cart and it would likely be busy there.

Her hand broke through the surface of the water, making ripples spread out across the pond like tiny waves. It felt a little cool, but relaxing, something to soften her nerves from the breakdown she had just had. Raising her hand out of the water and placing her other one next to it, she drank the water, relaxed at the sensation as it slid down her throat. She gave a little sigh of relief and lowered her hands, looking down at the water…and going wide eyed!

Her face! It-it-it was…lighting up! It was lighting up purple! Then, all of a sudden, it faded away in the blink of an eye. If it was lighting up purple, then that could only mean….

She shook her head frantically and hit the water with her fist, splashing away her face and creating much larger ripples that swept out across the pond, growing in size. Silvermist stared down at the water and watched as it settled and her face appeared on it again.

Meanwhile, at the grass behind her, the minister of autumn and Ishia emerged into the open space near the pond.

"Well, let's hope they can find out what's wrong with her," the minister was saying, to which Ishia nodded at. The two looked ahead to see Silvermist staring down at the water, not turning to look at them. The minister gave Ishia an uncertain look and they walked over to her.

"Silvermist?" he said when they reached her. "Ishia is here," he said. She still did not turn to look at them. "She's going to take you to the hospital," the minister explained. "Hopefully, we can cure this illness of yours and make you your usual cheery self once again," he chuckled on the last few words.

For a moment longer, Silvermist still did not turn to look at them. The minister was starting to get a bit annoyed and was about to walk in front of her and see if she was alright when she stood up and turned to face them, though this time, her face was blank, emotionless even. If was as if she was resigning herself to something.

"Alright," she replied tonelessly. "Let's go,"

She walked past them in the direction of the path. Ishia and the minister looked at each other, confused, but decided to follow her. They pushed through the grass that rose up like a kind of small forest around them until they finally came out of it onto the path where the cart was. Wordlessly, Silvermist climbed into the cart, shutting the door behind her and stared down at the dashboard in front of her as if she was in a trance.

"What's wrong with her?" Ishia asked the minister, whispering, as they walked around to the other side of the cart.

The minister shook his head "I have no idea," he replied, whispering.

Ishia opened her cart door and sat in it, shutting the door. The minister bent forward a little.

"Okay, well, be careful on the route to the hospital won't you," he warned them. Ishia nodded.

"Of course, minister," she replied. He nodded and looked over at Silvermist.

"Well, goodbye, Silvermist," he said to her. "And I hope you feel better,"

She just stared ahead at the dashboard as if she could not hear him. He looked down at the ground and sighed and stood up.

"Be careful, Ishia," he repeated to her and walked around the cart and off the path into the grass, disappearing into the forest. Ishia started the cart and looked over at Silvermist.

"Well, Silvermist," she said. "You may as well make yourself comfortable. It's quite a long ride to the hospital,"

Silvermist gave a single, emotionless laugh from behind a closed mouth and looked up at her. "Really?" she inquired tonelessly, almost as if it was sarcastic.

When she looked up at Ishia's face, it lit up a bright purple colour for a moment before fading away in the blink of an eye. Silvermist looked back ahead of her at the dashboard.

"I doubt it," she muttered.

A confused look came up onto Ishia's face as she looked ahead down the path. A turning was just up ahead and it led left under a large tree trunk. She placed her foot down on the accelerator and the cart drove forward down the path.

_Wonder what's up with her? _Ishia mentally asked herself.

**Meanwhile at the pond**

The minister of autumn emerged from the forest of grass, breathing a sigh of exhaustion, placing a hand on his forehead as he walked over to the side of the pond and looked out across it. It had been a hectic day with Silvermist having a nervous breakdown and him having to comfort her. Well, she was in good hands now. Hopefully, she would recover from this crazy illness and come back as her old cheery self again.

"Hey, minister,"

The minister turned to see a male water fairy flying over to him. "Ah, Tsu," he said as the fairy set down on the ground next to him. As he did, the minister could see the tiny bandage around his thumb. "How is your thumb?" he asked.

"It's okay," Tsu replied. "They fixed it up almost instantly, but they put this dressing on it just to make sure it didn't get infected or anything,"

"Oh, that's good,"

Silence fell between them for a moment as the minister looked back out across the pond until Tsu broke the silence.

"So, what's wrong with Silvermist?" he asked.

"Oh, don't get me started," the minister said to him. "It's been hectic with what's been going on her,"

"Yeah, I heard it was quite bad," he replied. "I heard she had a nervous breakdown earlier on," the minister nodded. "Is she alright?"

"Well, I can only hope," a pause. "I can only ho-"

Suddenly, he was cut off when there was a distant crash, though it sounded like thunder. The two looked up in the direction of the noise and then at each other with confused looks.

"Wonder what that was," the minister said.

"Probably thunder from the storm fairies," Tsu suggested, giving a slight shrug. "I think they're doing some practicing for the next Pixie Hollow Games nearby," he told the minister.

He nodded. "Yes, I heard about that," he replied. "I didn't think it was that loud when they practiced though," he paused for a moment as if trying to find another source for the noise, but shrugged after a moment. "Yes, maybe it was just thunder," he muttered to himself and resumed looking back out across the pond.

Just thunder. That was what he thought.

Unbeknownst to the minister or Tsu, the cart Ishia and Silvermist had been travelling in had been in the way of the treacherous boulder Ishia had warned the minister about when it broke apart and rolled down into their cart, knocking it off the road and down into a small hole in the ground. Both were killed instantly.

It looked like Silvermist's' predictions _were_ true after all.


	22. Story 4: The Tinker tools curse P1

**Note: Greetings all. As well as beginning a new story in the Tinkerbell section, I've decided to update this FF with a few more stories before I do finish it completely. So I hope you all enjoy them.  
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**Again, just to note, all stories are different and do not follow up on the plotlines of others. **

"Just follow us, Bolt,"

The air was filled with excitement in Pixie Hollow as earlier on it welcomed its newest arrival, a Tinker fairy called Bolt. Tinkerbell and Bobble had been at the gathering to greet him when he had chosen his talent and were now taking their talent's new member back to Tinker's Nook workshop to introduce him to everyone else.

Between Tinkerbell and Bobble was their new friend. He was tall with short black hair and brown eyes. He had already changed in his house and was now wearing a light green leaf top and shorts with small brown shoes made out of a branch. The smile and growing excitement in him as they travelled over the way leading up to Tinker's Nook told them that he was eager to get started on his new work. Being creative was something he loved and now he was going to try it out, and Tinkerbell and Bobble, along with everyone else had complete faith in him.

"Are we almost there yet?" Bolt asked eagerly, clenching his fists tightly in excitement.

"Yep, just down there," Tinkerbell replied, pointing down to the workshop built into the ground where he saw various Tinkers and mice working around several stone and wooden tables.

They led him down to the workshop and almost immediately, he was greeted by everyone. All were rushing over to greet him and shake his hand say hello and wish him luck in his new task as a Tinker. Bolt smiled and thanked everyone, enjoying this moment of introduction. He felt happy that this was where he was going to be working now and boy he could not wait to begin working as a Tinker.

A high pitched voice with a strong Scottish accent quickly broke through the noise of the crowd around Bolt.

"Alright, everyone come on now. Get back to work," it said and the crowd dispersed, some going back to their tables to see a plump Tinker fairy with brown hair and a green coloured dress. "Ah, hello young man," she greeted him, shaking his hand. "I'm Fairy Mary,"

Bolt smiled back, "Hello, Fairy Mary," he replied, letting go of her hand. "I'm looking really forward to being a part of the Tinker team,"

She chuckled. "That's good. Well, seeing as your eager, Bobble, Tinkerbell, could you two help our newest member get settled,"

Tinkerbell nodded. "Sure, Fairy Mary," she replied. "C'mon, Bolt. Over here,"

She and Bobble led him down the workshop to where several stone tables were situated against the wall, all of them covered with a variety of tools and completed things such as rainbow holders, kettle pots etc., all ready to be distributed among the other fairies of the hollow. Seeing them made Bolt even more happy with what he was about to start doing. At one of these tables was a large Tinker fairy with black hair and dressed in a light green top and dark green shorts with brown leaf shoes on. He had a cockney accent and was humming to himself as he worked on the rainbow holder he had at his table.

"Hey there, Clank," Tinkerbell greeted him happily.

"Hello there, Miss Bell," he replied cheerfully, turning to face the three and smiled when he saw Bolt. "New arrival?" he asked in a friendly manner as Bobble walked behind them and set to work on his table.

"Yeah, name's Bolt," Bolt replied to Clank, holding up his hand and shaking it. "Glad to be a part of the team,"

Clank nodded. "Yes, you'll really enjoy it here," he reassured the new Tinker.

"Though that is provided you do keep up with the work," Tinkerbell added and nodded towards Fairy Mary, who was ushering a woman Tinker fairy in the middle of the workshop to get on with her work. "Fairy Mary doesn't like people when they get lazy," she warned him.

Bolt chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind," he replied.

"Bobble, how's the cart wheel going?" they heard Clank ask and looked over to see Bobble twisting a set of twigs into place in the middle of a stone wheel, a hammer next to him on the table.

"Fine, Clanky. Go grab the cart and we'll put it back on there," he replied, giving the twigs a final twist to make sure they were done up nice and tight to stop them from coming loose.

"Righty-Ho!" Clank rushed off towards the wall nearby where a cart with a missing wheel was placed after it had broken off on the way to a delivery to the garden fairies.

Whilst he was gone, Tinkerbell was explaining to Bolt what the other Tinkers were already working on, which was the carriages that would be used to transport the equipment needed for the fairies to the mainland in a few weeks' time. Bolt listened intently and was eager to begin his work. After a few minutes, Tinkerbell left him too his work and set about helping Bobble and Clank repair the cart wheel.

As they all began their work, however, Bolt quickly saw that he needed a hammer to pound the twig he had into place on the carriage, but saw none on his table or the one to his right. There was one, though, on the table to his left, the one that Bobble was using, which made Bolt hesitant in using it at first.

_I'm sure he won't mind _Bolt reassured himself as he grabbed it and, holding the carriage in place, raised the hammer to strike the twigs with it.

Unbeknownst to him, the other three caught sight of what he was doing and panic immediately filled them.

"Bolt, no, don't use that!" Bobble exclaimed in fear.

Bolt looked up at them with a surprised expression on his face, but at the same time brought the hammer down and it struck his hand, making him cry out loudly and jump backwards, clutching his injured hand with his other hand. Bobble, Clank and Tinkerbell rushed over to his aid, along with Fairy Mary and a few others who came over to see what was wrong.

"Is everything alright over here?" Fairy Mary asked when she reached the three.

"I hope so," Tinkerbell replied, gently taking Bolt's hand and examining the huge red mark that was gradually forming into a bruise on the back of it from where he had struck himself with the hammer.

"I don't know how I did that," Bolt was saying, utter shock in his voice. "The hammer was nowhere near my hand! There's no way it could have done that!"

"I'm sorry, Bolt," Bobble intervened apologetically. "It's my fault, I should have warned you when we got here,"

Bolt's eyes now filled with confusion as he and everyone else looked at Bobble, though they, unlike the new Tinker, were not confused.

"What? Told me about what?"

"About my tools," Bobble explained, heaving a heavy sigh as if he were about to tell Bolt something horrific and was preparing himself to do so. "You see, they're cursed,"

The last word hung on Bolt's mind, only making him even more confused. "Cursed?" he repeated, now a twinge of laughter coming into his voice. "W-what do you mean cursed?" he asked, looking at the faces of the other fairies for explanation.

"What I mean is that what these tools are made out of was found in a cave struck with a curse put there by a fairy who used to know dark magic, or at least that's what the legend says," he explained. "But it's true that whoever used these tools without the owner's permission will bring harm to them," he nodded at Bolt's injured hand. "Hence, what's just happened to you,"

Bolt just stood there for a moment, letting what Bobble told him sink in, but, quite frankly, he could not bring himself to believe it! A curse?! A curse on a set of tools! Oh, this had to be a joke of some sort.

He shook his head in disbelief, letting out a low laugh. "This has to be a joke, am I right?" he asked the others, glancing at their faces, though their expressions told him that this so called curse Bobble had just told him about was well and truly real. "Oh, c'mon, guys! I-i-it was an accident. Yeah, that's it! That sounds more feasible than some stupid curse!"

"I wouldn't say that," a woman Tinker fairy, who was about a head shorter than him and had brown hair tied in a bun and was dressed in a light green leaf dress, piped up, showing him her arm where the outline of a small scar was visible. "That happened to me when I used one of Bobble's acorn cutters without telling him," she told Bolt with a hint of worry in her voice.

"And look what happened to my hand," Clank piped up, showing the new arrival his palm where a small bruise was visible at the base of his middle finger. One of the sharpened twigs went right into my hand and made it bleed for a while when I didn't ask him about using his tools," he explained, his voice also worried.

Bolt just stared at him and then back at the woman Tinker who had showed him her arm and then at Bobble and shook his head.

"Now come on, guys!" he said, taking his hand out of Tinkerbell's, which made him wince from the sudden movement. "I'm sure those can all be rationally explained. I mean, what's next?" he started to chuckle to himself. "Are trees going to suddenly start flying around?" he laughed. "Oh, or I suppose the flowers in the meadows are gonna start coming to life and attacking everyone. I mean, come on! There's no such thing as a curse!"

"Maybe not to you, Bolt," Bobble told him firmly. "Quite frankly, I don't like believing it as well, and I'm sure I can vouch for everyone else here. But _please_, for you own safety in the future, just _ask me_ when you want to use them. Please!"

Bolt raised his hands. "Okay, okay, I will! Don't worry," he reassured Bobble, though the disbelief in his voice still made him think what he said was right; still it satisfied Bobble and everyone else.

"Right, well, you may as well go to the healing fairies for now and get your hand checked out to see if it's okay. I'll take you there,"

"Thanks, Fairy Mary," he replied as they set off, though when they were out of sight of the workshop he glanced back over his shoulder, looking at it with a look of concern in his eyes.

_They did seem pretty convinced about it _one voice in his head told him worryingly.

_Oh don't believe that nonsense! _Another snapped back angrily. _It's just them being hysterical!_

That seemed to satisfy Bolt. Yes, they were just all being crazy and hysterical over nothing. He was sure that his injury, along with all the others he had seen that were related to these tools could be rationally explained. His accident in hitting his hand seemed a thousand times more believable than some curse!

Though, he did keep in mind that he was going to be careful when using them from now on.


	23. The Tinker tools curse P2

**Later that night**

The dead of night had descended upon Pixie Hollow, pierced only by the noise of the crickets or the sounds of a few last minute workers throughout the Hollow. The sky was filled with thousands upon thousands of stars further than the eye could see; creating a peaceful scene around the island that was home to the fairies and many other creatures.

In the workshop, a lone Tinker fairy was hard at work, his only source of light being a small flame on a lantern hanging from a stick above him. It was Bolt. He was staying behind to finish off in fixing a small cart after it broke apart a few days ago and had been left for someone to fix, though nobody had either wanted to or were too busy with what they were working on to do anything about it. At the moment, he hammered away at a small part of the wheel, trying to finish it in prime condition so it would not break again in future.

As he worked his hand, which was now bandaged up, ached a little, making him wince slightly in pain. The accident earlier on had been the result of this crazy curse that the others seemed to believe in. Though they had sounded pretty serious about it, Bolt just shook it off, renouncing it as something that was the result of wild imagination or just sheer craziness based on some myth, it was just ridiculous! There were no such things as curses and either these guys were playing a trick on him or there was something very wrong with all of them. What had happened to him today had a perfect rational explanation, and that was he was just not looking at what he was doing. Now sounded more likely to happen than some stupid curse!

As he finished hammering away, Bolt stopped and wiped a bit of sweat off his brow. The wheel was in place, now it just needed to be twisted into the cart so as to tighten it and stop it from coming loose. The only thing he needed now was a tool nicknamed a 'tightener' which was made specifically for this task. There was just one problem.

He knelt down and looked into a hole in the side of the table where Tinkers would place their tools, only to find that the tightener he had placed there was gone.

_Now where's that gone? _He mentally asked himself. Then he remembered. _Oh yes, one of the other Tinkers used it to fix something else back at his house!_

Well, that was a problem causer because now he could not finish the wheel because there were few of these kinds of tools left, mainly because they were made of metal parts of lost things and they often rusted and had to be disposed of. Bolt did not give up hope though, there just had to be one lying around somewhere in the workshop.

It was then it caught his eye. Looking to his left, he saw a tightener, an iron spring like objet that had been bent about five or six times to form a circle shape with one end sticking out of the bottom, on Bobble's stone table, one of his tools. Relief filled Bolt at first as he walked over to it and picked it up, but as he took it back over to the wheel a feeling of uncertainty swept over him as if a ghost had just walked through him and he felt its cold spot. It was the feeling of this stupid curse again and he tried to dismiss it, but for some reason he just could not get it out of his mind. The accident earlier on had made him think a little about it, even though he had fully dismissed it as being something rational, and now his mind was set on it once again and asking this question: Would it really be safe to use this?

_Well, it has to be _he mentally told himself. _After all, there's no such things as curses, and if it is real then why's nothing happening to me now?_

Those rhetorical questions again made him think this was nothing but a load of nonsense, an utter waste of time. Still, though, just to be safe, he placed the tightener on the wooden peg in the middle of the wheel and, grabbing hold of the end of the tool began to turn it slowly. When he had completed one turn, he stopped and chuckled to himself.

"Well, nothing's happened to me," he said in a manner that was obvious it was telling him he had been right all along. "Some curse," he added, chuckling to himself as he continued turning the wheel.

Then, after about two more turns of the tightener it suddenly stopped and refused to go any further. Grunting loudly, he tried to push it with all his strength but it would not budge an inch. He tried again, but still nothing. He even tried to push it the opposite way he had been turning the wheel to then try and turn it again but it would still not move then. Sighing in annoyance, he placed his hand underneath the wheel at where the peg was, just mere millimetres from stopping where it should be.

"Probably something stuck there," Bolt muttered to himself as he felt around, keeping one hand on the tightener as he leant forward a little on the tightener.

Suddenly, the tool turned sharply in the way he had been pushing it and pushed the wheel down quickly, screwing it into place. Bolt yelled out in pain, his hand having been caught underneath it. He struggled to pull it free but the wheel held it in place as if some monster was trying to tear off his hand and doing this only made the pain worse. He felt the bones in his hand break and be pushed together, making tears form in his eyes from the immense pain. He grabbed hold of the tightener and, using all his strength in his free hand, managed to push it backwards, which loosened the wheel enough for him to pull his hand free. When he had done, he fell over onto his bottom, clutching his bruised and bleeding hand tightly.

"Argh! Ow!" he gasped in utter pain, wincing as he tried to move his fingers.

He looked up at the tightener with fear filled eyes as if it were some kind of possessed object. In fact, that was actually a fitting metaphor for it at the moment for Bolt. That thing was possessed! There was no way it could have turned with him using only one hand; it had only been possible using both of his to start with! There was…there was definitely something more to these tools than meets the eye. What if…what if the rumour about the curse was true?! It sounded ridiculous, but Bolt suddenly found himself believing it, or at least accepting it now! There was, without a doubt, definitely something superstitious, and dangerous about them.

Picking himself up from the ground, he flew out of the workshop towards where the healing fairies would be, hoping that there would be one there to help him out; his mind still racing from what had just happened.

**The next morning**

Another bright and sunny day had risen for Pixie Hollow and all fairies and animals were awakening to continue their daily work in preparing for the coming seasons. The morning heat swept over them with a sense of soothing relief, removing away the drop in temperature from the previous night as if the day itself was welcoming the fairies. A light wind blew through the air, rustling the leaves on the trees and bushes. It was truly a beautiful start to the day.

At the Tinker workshop, the fairies began to file in one-by-one, all of them chatting happily as they prepared themselves for the day's work. Some had new things to start whilst others were almost finished on their pieces of work. Among the crowd entering the workplace was Tinkerbell, Bobble and Clank, all of them chatting about current events that had happened recently over the last few days and of the new arrival yesterday to the Tinker fairies.

"Hey, look," Clank suddenly piped up, pointing to the stone table where a mostly finished cart lay. The three flew over to it, quickly admiring the mostly fixed object. "Well, looks like Bolt's really got eh knack for his talent," he said in an impressed manner.

"Yeah, he really is a hard worker. His enthusiasm's paid off," Tinkerbell agreed, but looked around questionably. "Wonder where he is?"

"Probably still asleep," Bobble suggested as he stood up from looking at the bottom of the cart to see if that had been fixed completely. "Tired from working late. Still, knowing him he'll be rushing out here as soon as he sees the sun,"

Tinkerbell and Clank chuckled and went to their work, which was to begin making more rainbow holders. However, as Bobble went to his table he suddenly noticed his tightener was gone. He looked around and quickly found it on the peg of the cart wheel.

"How did it get there?" he asked himself, walking over to it and picking it up. Then it hit him. "Unless…"

"Oh, hey Bolt," he heard a woman's voice call out from behind.

Bobble turned to see the new arrival coming towards them. He replied friendly to the woman and tried to move on without attracting too much attention to himself, though it was not working.

"Say, what happened to your hand?" a male Tinker fairy asked him.

"Oh, just an accident," he replied quickly, heading off before the fairy could inquire further.

However, when he though he was safe, he was stopped by Bobble, who had both of his hands on his hips and was looking at him with a sort of disappointed expression. He looked down at his hand, which had now been bandaged up from the bottom to just below the middle of the fingers and thumb and sighed.

"Bolt, can I talk to you for a minute, please?" he said, though his voice clearly pointed out that he was actually sounding more demanding.

"Um…c-can't it wait, Bobble?" he asked hopefully but to no avail.

"No, I'd like to talk to you now. How did you hurt your hand?"

Bolt looked down at it, fear gripping his eyes, but he dared not look back up at Bobble. "I-i-it was j-just an accident, Bobble! I didn't mean to use your tightener!"

Bobble sighed in a clearly annoyed manner, rubbing his hand hard down his face as if trying to tear it off.

"Bolt, I did tell you to please ask permission before using those tools!" he snapped, which drew Tinkerbell and Clank's attention. "Obviously you did not listen and now look what's happened to you. It could have been a lot worse, you know."

"I know that!" Bolt interrupted. He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't take your warning on board at first, but…now I know, okay. Now I know that this…curse or whatever it is really does exist. I will ask in future, I promise."

That seemed to soothe Bobble's annoyance a little and he nodded and placed a hand on Bolt's shoulder.

"It's fine, I'm sorry for snapping at you," he replied. "And I'm glad you've taken it on board, but just please remember it in future,"

Bolt nodded. "I will, don't worry," he reassured him.

**Authors note: Happy New Year everyone!**


	24. The Tinker tools curse P3

**A few days later**

Things had calmed down in the workshop between Bolt and Bobble after what had happened recently and, so far, Bolt had never needed to use his friend's tools as he had either been carrying out deliveries or was too busy in helping Tinkerbell, Clank or anyone else working on what they were doing. Whenever he was around Bobble's tool though, he tried to stay away from them, uncertain as to whether they were safe or not to even be near after what had recently happened to his hand. It was as if he was afraid that they would suddenly come to life and attack him, though they already kind of did have a life of their own from what they had done to him so far, which was all the more for why he was cautious around them.

However, today was different for Bolt. He was back in the workshop for today and right now, the lantern above his head was in need of repair as today was a cloudy day and with a leaf covered tree above them most of the light getting through the clouds was blocked, making it hard for him and Tinkerbell to try and work on another cart they were fixing. There was one problem though, and that was that the lantern was heavy, as it was made of metal, and it needed at least two fairies to help in taking it down. Usually, with this group it was not really much of a problem when they had Clank but he was off on a delivery and with him gone it just made their task much more difficult.

And on top of all that, the lantern was connected to the branch with a thick set of vines that had to be cut with a small pair of scissors to get the lantern down from the branch. Unfortunately, they were all being used at the moment, all except for…

Bolt, hovering next to the lantern, looked down at the stone table where Bobble was working on another bee liner to see a pair of these small scissors there. A feeling of uncertainty swept over him like water on rock. Could he really bring himself to ask Bobble to use his tool? After what had recently happened, he would not be surprised if Bobble had second thoughts about him doing so, and even if he was able to use them what if he hurt himself again? Well, he would have asked so that was unlikely to happen but the prospect of that just still lingered in his mind.

_I may as well ask him. _Bolt thought with concern, hovering down towards Bobble, though he glanced at his bandaged hand and felt a twinge of fear in him. _I'll just have to hope for the best I don't get hurt. _

As Bobble put together two parts of the bee liner, he noticed someone standing over him and looked up to see Bolt in front of the table, a look of uncertainty on his face.

"Oh, yes, Bolt. Can I help you?" he asked.

Bolt nodded lowly, clearly anxious about what he was doing. "Yeah…um, Bobble can I use your pair of scissors?" he asked nervously, rubbing the back of his head with his hand, eyeing the tool he wanted to use with a worried gaze.

As Bolt expected, Bobble looked at him with a sense of uncertainty and then down at the scissors on his desk. There was no doubt he was adamant in letting Bolt use one of his tools after the recent injury he dealt to himself. Still, though, he was proud that his friend had actually _asked _to use them this time rather than just using it without permission. After a moment, Bobble nodded and handed him the scissors.

"Sure, just make sure you don't hurt yourself," he said, adding a bit of a tone on the last three words to make sure Bolt got the point.

He nodded and flew back up to the lantern and began to cut away at the vines, starting from the back and heading towards the lantern. As he cut through the vines, however, he failed to notice that one end of the vine was stuck on the edge of the lantern and as he cut the branch and the lantern shook, edging the end of the vine towards the flames.

All of a sudden, about half-way down the vines, the scissors suddenly stopped dead on the top of the vine. Bolt felt nervous at first but tried not to show it and began to push down on the scissors to make them cut, but they did not budge an inch. Now he was beginning to get annoyed and he pushed down with his other hand on the top of the pair of scissors but as he did so his finger suddenly slipped and, at that exact moment, the blade suddenly went down.

"AAAAHH!"

The scream filled the air and turned all the heads in the workshop in Bolt's direction for them to see him back away from the branch and fall onto the ground, clutching his uninjured hand's middle finger tightly as a small trickle of blood flowed down it. The branch jolted madly and the cut vines and the pair of scissors fell to the ground. Tinkerbell and Bobble quickly rushed over to their injured friend, as did a few others nearby.

"Oh my gosh, Bolt are you alright?!" Tinkerbell cried, fear lingering in her eyes.

"I told you to be careful, laddie," Bobble said to him as he tried to examine his injured finger.

"I was careful!" Bolt snapped angrily at Bobble, startling him a little. "Your stinking tool hurt me! I asked this time, Bobble! _I asked you_ if I could use it and I still get hurt! You and your stinking curse got me hurt!"

"Whoa, look out!" a woman Tinker fairy suddenly exclaimed pointing up at the branch.

Now all eyes turned to the lantern and at that moment the branch was set alight from the flames as they travelled up the vine and onto the wooden bark, engulfing it in an instant. A few Tinkers rushed off quickly to fetch some water to put it out and stop it from spreading further.

Bolt just stared at the flame in complete astonishment. That fire would have really hurt him if he had been up there a minute ago; he had gotten away just in time! Now that was a string of luck, but…but that had only happened because of the…

"There, ya see, Bolt?" Bobble pointed out to him. "You asking saved you from further harm. The curse saved you,"

Now that really struck Bolt hard. He could not believe it! The curse…it…it saved him! It had brought him harm but now it saved him from being burned, possibly meaning it just saved his life! It…it was j-just something he could not comprehend!

As the Tinker fairies arrived back with some water to put out the burning branch, there was one thing that did assert itself in Bolt's mind now: and that was he was definitely a believer in curses.


	25. Story 5: A sparrowman's healing touch P1

Deep within the confines of a tree trunk, the Pixie Hollow medical ward was mostly quiet, save for the rustling of paperwork among the many leafs and the flapping of wings and clapping of shoes on the floor as the healing fairies went about their duties. Some were attending to the fairies that were ill or had been injured in any sort of way; others were looking after the hollow's animals or were making sure they had enough medical supplies for the following days. A bright full moon shone in the night sky, surrounded by the thousands upon thousands of stars that made this night absolutely beautiful just as they had been the many nights before and would continue to do for the nights approaching.

In one part of the medical ward, a lone healing fairy fluttered down a corridor carved through the corridor of the medical ward, a small food tray made of bark in her hands and on it were several sunflower seeds that had not been touched by her patient. She had gold eyes; brown hair tied in a ponytail and was wearing a red and gold leaf dress. Her name was Lucy and she had just left a room; the doorway to it being behind her on the wall to her left and a sad expression was glued across her face.

Stopping in the middle of the corridor, she looked over her shoulder into the room at the patient lying in the bed they had in there. Under the sheets that covered up her the bottom of the patient's neck was Queen Clarion, who was sound asleep but her blonde hair had been loosened a little and the crown was on a small bedside cabinet next to her, a single window allowing a small ray of light to illuminate the room. She had been there for the past few days after catching a bad cough and rather than go away it had instead worsened to the point of the queen passing out several times. Until then, everyone had been confident that she would pull through but now…now she looked as if she did not have too long left. In fact, many of the healing fairies were beginning to get worried about that actually happening to her and yes it was a horrible thing to allow entering within their minds but…it was now becoming a possibility more than ever.

"Hey Lucy, are you okay?"

Snapped out her gaze into Queen Clarion's room, she turned her head back to face ahead of her to see another fairy coming towards her. She was slightly taller than Lucy with gold eyes and a small but pointed nose. She was dressed in more of a white/dark grey coloured dress with long white hair cascading down her back, almost reaching her hips where it went into a kind of curl.

"Oh hey, Eve," she replied brightly, but with a kind of sad tone mixed into her voice.

Upon hearing this, Eve instantly knew there was something wrong with Lucy. Then again, she had known for the last few days that she was not as bright and cheerful as she used to be and she knew why; the food tray was enough to tell her.

"She didn't eat anything again, didn't she?" she asked expectantly and Lucy nodded.

"Yeah," she replied sadly, looking back at the room. "I'm getting really worried about her, Eve. This is the second day in a row she hasn't eating. I'm starting to think…" she trailed off and looked down at the floor with sad eyes; her mind once again coming to the worst possible scenario from this illness Clarion had.

Eve stepped forward and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Lucy. Just have faith. After all, the queen'll pull through in the end. She always does,"

Lucy gave a small shrug, but found it hard to contemplate how that could happen. The queen had been getting worse and worse and it was likely that would continue until…well, she preferred not to say.

Eve took the tray from her and gently patted her cheek. "Don't worry, Lucy. Look, go and have a little break, try and cheer yourself up,"

The healing fairy nodded. "Alright,"

Eve went off down the corridor and disappeared into another room. Lucy, however, fluttered back over to the queen's. Eve had said go have a break, but she did not say _where_ to have it. Besides, Lucy just felt comfortable being around the queen and she might need her help in case anything happened. She would look after her.

But just as she reached the room, she stopped dead in the doorway and found herself staring at the back of someone else. It was a sparrowman, which was obvious because of his big shoulders and short brown hair. He had a dark brown leaf jacket over his top and was wearing light brown trousers and shoes. Protruding from his back was a pair of large wings that were patterned like that of a spiral similar to that of the ying and yang symbol. He had his hand on the top of Queen Clarion's hand, which had been pulled up from under the covers of her bed and was resting next to her; gently tapping it as if he was comforting her after she had received some terrible news of sort.

Lucy just stared at this sparrowman with complete confusion in her eyes. Hundreds of questions were running through her mind. Who was he? What was he doing here? How did he know Queen Clarion? And biggest of all: How did he get in there without Eve or her seeing him?

Just then, the sparrowman began to turn his head to look over his shoulder and, like an antelope fleeing from danger on the savannah, she darted away out of the doorway and hid behind the wall, exhaling deeply and silently; waiting to see if he would step out of the room to investigate who had been watching him. One second passed. Two. Three. Surely he would have looked out by now. Maybe she could have another peek and see what he was doing and moved back towards the doorway, holding her breath just in case something happened.

"Oh, Lucy! Lucy!" a voice from behind called.

Startled, she looked behind her and saw another male hearing fairy urging her to him.

"I need your help with one of the Tinkers," he called out to her.

Lucy nodded. "Alright, I'm coming," she replied and flew after him; her mind, however, still set on that strange sparrowman in the queen's room.


	26. A sparrowman's healing touch P2

**Note: I would just like to note in reply to **_**VidiaPhoenix**_** that every story within this FF is, as I have stated in the first chapter of the entire FF and the first chapter of story 2, that every story is completely different to one another and is in no way linked. This is just to remove any confusion, so please make sure you sure read this before you continue on. **

**The next day**

A much busier morning had surfaced for the fairies of Pixie Hollow, particularly in the medical ward where all the healing fairies were rushing about to try and get their activities done. There was not really any rush of emergency or anything like that; just a few rainbow collisions and one or two bite marks from trying to help baby birds to fly. Everyone was chatting happily as they worked, talking about the events of the past few days and what not.

Lucy even seemed to be a bit brighter this morning. After the strange experience when she encountered that sparrowman last night, she had been silent in contemplating her thoughts about how he could have gotten in the room to the point where you would literally have to shake her a little to get her attention. But after some time, she had remembered that the window was not blocked or anything and it was quite wide so any fairy could get in. That had soothed her a little, but still there was one thought that was continually nagging her head, there was still one question and that was: Who was he?

She did not know who this sparrowman was at all, and she had a feeling that nobody else did either? It was obvious that he had probably come to pay his respects and hope for the queen to get better but there was just still that single question hanging over her like a cloud? Who was this man and how did he know the queen? At first, she had thought he was a scout talent, mainly because of his clothing but she had had many scout talents come in here injured or bringing injured in her before and she knew virtually all of them. He was in no way a minister because none of the ministers looked like that. Was he a kind of Tinker fairy or some really new scout talent? Possibly, but still it nagged her that there was just…just no way of explaining who this sparrowman was.

After a while, she had shaken it off a little and decided not to think about it as much, and who knew: someone might tell her or reveal who he was eventually.

Right now, Lucy was talking to Eve after the fiasco last night when she had gone to help the Tinker fairy that was brought in. Apparently, he had had, unusually, a rainbow collision and the colours had mixed with each other so now he had turned completely red on the top half and a sort of pinkish colour on the bottom half of his body. He was alright and was now being fixed up by a light fairy that had come over to help in getting rid of the rainbow colours on his body.

"Well, I'm glad he's all better. He looked really serious when he came in," Eve, who was sitting behind a wooden desk, replied to Lucy, who nodded as she leaned against the desk.

"Mm. He'll have to be more careful in future," she replied and stood up straight. "Right, I best go and check up on Clarion," she said, looking down the corridor at her room and going silent for a moment, not hearing Eve's reply to her.

"Lucy? Lucy?" Eve was calling her and she gave her a nudge, startling the young healing fairy and she looked back at her. "Lost you for a minute there,"

Lucy blinked and shook her head a little. "Right, sorry. I was just-"

"-Still thinking about that sparrowman?" Eve finished the sentence and Lucy nodded. "Well, someone'll know who he is. He probably knows Queen Clarion anyway, maybe he's an old friend,"

Lucy nodded slightly in agreement, but still could not shake the thought of him out of her mind.

"Anyway, yes go check up on Clarion and see if she is awake," Eve said to her younger colleague.

Lucy smiled at this and fluttered off down the corridor, brimming with hope that the queen would have, even if it was only in the slightest possible way, recovered a little. When she stopped in the doorway and looked into the room she went completely wide-eyed with shock.

The bed the queen had been sleeping in was empty, completely empty! A sense of panic immediately filled Lucy's heart. Where was she? Where was the queen? Her mind raced with intensity. Maybe someone had come along and taken her away to be checked up. Wait, no her crown was still on the bedside cabinet, as it was appropriate for Clarion to take it with her wherever she went. Well if she was not here then-

Lucy's eyes turned to the window and her body went still when she saw the queen standing there in her golden dress, her large wings gently opening and closing as she stared out into the wide blue sky that stretched out in front of her and below it was the layout of a small part of Pixie Hollow comprising of a tiny river and a small open bit of ground where several other talent fairies were out and about working away. Her lips parted as a sigh passed over them and met again in a small smile; her blue eyes shining in the brightness of the sun.

"Queen Clarion!" Lucy exclaimed, running towards her.

The queen turned around and smiled at the healing fairy, showing her face which had a lot more colour in it than last night when she had gone to check up on her. In fact, this and her standing up told Lucy that she looked as if she was getting better.

"Why, Lucy, hello my dear," she greeted. "Don't be so alarmed, I'm alright,"

"B-bu-but, your highness! Why are you out of bed?" Lucy asked her exasperatedly. "You shouldn't be out of bed in your state! Who knows how much worse you could get!"

The queen held up a hand to silence her and placed it on her shoulder. "It's alright, my dear, I'm fine," she assured her gently, taking her hand off her shoulder and walking back over to her bed and sitting down on the side of it. "This morning when I woke up, I felt fine. Still a little weak in the chest, but I felt much better than I was a few days ago,"

Lucy just shook her head slightly, her mind unable to comprehend how this could have happened. How could the queen, who looked to literally be on the point of giving up last night, suddenly wake up and feel as if she was cured of some horrible disease and completely healthy? It was…it was just not possible!

Unless…

"I don't know how it happened, but…" Queen Clarion continued and just shrugged. "Anyhow, I am fine,"

Lucy sighed and smiled at her, walking over to the queen. "Well, let's hope it lasts, your highness," she said in a hopeful manner. "Maybe you could be on the road to recovery,"

Clarion nodded. "Yes, let's hope so," she replied.

"Well, would you like me to get you something to eat and a drink?"

Clarion's eyes lit up a little. "Oh, yes, please. I feel like I could eat a giant pumpkin muffin,"

They chuckled and Lucy nodded. "Alright, your highness, I'll be back in a few moments,"

She fluttered over to the door, but as she reached it she suddenly stopped as that thought hit her back in the head again about…about _him_. What if he had something to do with the queen's recovery? Curious, she turned back to the queen.

"Um…excuse me, your highness?" she inquired with a bit of apprehension, feeling a little uneasy about asking the queen this because it may be personal.

Clarion turned around on her bed, a look of uncertainty etching across her face when she saw Lucy's apprehensive expression.

"My Lucy, what is it?" she asked worryingly.

"Well," Lucy began, rubbing the back of her head with her hand. "Queen Clarion, there was a sparrowman beside your bed last night and he was patting your hand,"

Clarion looked a little surprised at this answer from the healing fairy. "Oh, well, what did he look like?"

Lucy explained to her what the sparrowman's appearance was and that nobody so far seemed to know him or how he had managed to get inside the room. When she was done, Queen Clarion 'hmmed' in deep thought for a moment, trying to work out who this might be. She did have a slight idea but she shook it off and, looking up at Lucy, shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Lucy, I have no idea of who he could be," she replied. "He might just be another new fairy talent come to wish me good luck in getting better,"

Lucy nodded. Yes, that probably was it but for some reason he just still lingered in her mind like some kind of annoying insect that would continually buzz around you and annoy you even when you had tried to swat it away. Nevertheless, she shook it off and went off to fetch the queen something to eat.


	27. A sparrowman's healing touch P3

**Later that night**

Unfortunately, to the dismay of everyone, the queen's sudden perking up and hopeful recovery was not to last. As the day wore on, her condition began to decline and by the evening she was almost back to square one again, bed-ridden with a weak breath and no longer eating or drinking, her body once again looking as if it were about to give up completely. Lucy had, as had everyone else, grown extremely worried about this and was now constantly attending to the queen, checking up on her almost every few minutes, just to make sure she was…well, she preferred not to say, let alone _think_ of it.

Right now, a deathly silence hung over the Hollow under another black sky filled to the brim with thousands of stars that shined and twinkled like lanterns or candles out in some festival. A gentle night breeze swept through the air, giving some comfort to those in the hollow who had heard of what was happening to their queen; many of them believing that she would pull through and recover just like the strong character she was. Well, whether she would live or not would be decided in the next night or so by fate, all the fairies would do was continue to hope.

If only those in the medical ward could have that belief in them now, in particular Lucy. At the moment, she was sitting behind the small desk with one arm spread across the desk and the other up against her mouth with a closed fist at the end; a look of worry etched across her face. She had been here for the last two hours, only getting up every few moments to check up on the queen even though Eve had reassured her that she would pull through but Lucy had ignored her and said she would stay just in case. She was worried, no doubt even more so than anyone else in Pixie Hollow about the worst outcome of this illness Clarion had. If only there was a way for her to recover completely.

"There just has to be a way," Lucy whispered to herself, her finger on her free hand tapping the desk top apprehensively. "The queen has to pull through!"

The seconds ticked past but they felt like hours to Lucy, who sighed and rubbed her hand in front of her mouth over her forehead heavily and then moving it down to wipe a tear forming in her eye. This was beginning to take its toll on her. Oh, she just really wished that Clarion would be better soon, right now would be the best thing in the whole of Neverland to Lucy right now.

_Tap! Tap! Tap!_

"What the…?" Lucy turned her head down the corridor towards Clarion's room as the noise reached her ears, now a look of confusion etching across her face as she stood up from the desk; her mind set on this sudden arrival of…whoever or whatever was here.

Who was down in the Queen's room? Could it have been one of the other healing fairies? No, they had all either gone home or were in other parts of the medical ward. What about another fairy? Maybe but why would they be here so late and not see Lucy. In fact, anyone that would have gone into the Queen's room she would have seen and heard. The only other way was if they sneaked in through the window. Then it hit her that it was probably a few fairies who had come here to check up on their Queen without consulting Lucy or any other healing fairy.

Fluttering down the corridor towards the room, Lucy prepared herself to see them off, though using her firmness on those who clearly loved their leader and were here to wish her better health was going to be hard for her to do. Then again, she _had_ to do it otherwise it would encourage others to come here when they were not supposed to and the last thing the hollow needed in the Queen's absence was everything coming to a halt.

But just as she reached the doorway, she stopped dead and went wide at what, or more correctly _who _she saw.

It was him! It was that sparrowman again, standing over her bed with his hand patting her head as she silently and gently breathed in her sleep; not muttering a single word of comfort though. Lucy quickly hid behind the wall next to the door, her heart rate now accelerating to an unprecedented level. The same questions that had run through her head yesterday and earlier today were coming back to her now but again none of them she could answer. He was probably here to wish her luck, but, just as Lucy had thought a minute ago, she was going to have to tell him to leave; the only difference being she felt glad about telling this sparrowman to go because he was beginning to make her worry.

Inhaling deeply, as if breathing in courage, she moved back towards the doorway, only to jump back a few paces to see him standing in the doorway, staring at her with no emotion visible on his face.

It was here that she got a full view of his face. He had brown eyes, a small nose with a pointed end and pale lips that were hard to see on an equally coloured face. His brown hair covered his forehead, coming to a stop just above the eyes. Even though his appearance did worry her a little she had to admit that he was actually quite handsome with the way he looked. Still though, she had to do what was expected of her as a healing fairy.

"Um…I'm so sorry," she said, regaining her composure and looking at him straight in the eyes. "But…I have to…ask you to leave. It's just to stop anyone from being here when they shouldn't and causing problems,"

When she finished, she expected a refusal from him but, to her surprise, he smiled and nodded.

"I understand," he replied in a voice that was soft but heavy toned and stepped out of the doorway, giving Lucy a clear view of the Queen as she snoozed on in her bed. "She'll be fine now. Look after her," he said to Lucy and immediately turned and walked away down the corridor without uttering another word and leaving her dumbfounded.

Her mind was racing with questions once again as she watched him turn the corner at the end of the corridor and disappear from sight. Who was he, seriously? There had to be some clue about his identity but there was no answer. She had taken in all his facial features but they did not match anyone she knew; only heightening her suspicion further of this strange sparrowman. What was more striking to her was his reassurance to her about the Queen being alright. How did he know whether her condition was improving or not? There was no way he could have known! There was no doubt to her now that there was something strange about this man.

As she set herself on checking up on the Queen once more, another question that entered her mind was whether he was going to return or not.


	28. A sparrowman's healing touch P4

**The next day's afternoon**

Happiness and joy had exploded around Pixie Hollow like a bomb this morning when news had spread that the Queen was on the way to a full recovery this morning. All fairies of all talents were happy to hear about it and Lord Milori of the Winter Woods was going to come over soon to check up on his lover after he had been stopped from doing so yesterday due to an incident involving one of the owls in the winter woods. After all the worrying, everyone was finally relieved the worst of the illness of Clarion had passed and soon she would be back to her old self again.

At the moment, the recovering Queen was lying in her bed, reading a small leaf card that had been given to her by one of her ministers who had brought it, along with some other things, in earlier on; wishing it her good health for the future. Clarion smiled as she read it, her gladness seeping over inside her now that she was all better. When she had woken up this morning she had felt exactly the same as she did yesterday; cheerful, fit and more alive, almost as if she had already fully recovered, and the prospect of her leaving here soon was enough to overwhelm her with joy.

A knock at the door made her look up and a smile came onto her face when she saw Lucy standing there, a smile also on her face.

"Ah, Lucy, it's good to see you. Come in," Clarion said closing the card and setting down next to her.

"Thank you, Queen Clarion," she replied, walking in and sitting next to her on the bed. "So, how does it feel to be all better?" she asked as she plonked herself down on the side of the bed next to the Queen, who smiled at the question and passed a happy smile through her lips.

"Oh, it feels wonderful," she replied softly, sitting up a bit more in her bed. "Soon I can get back to work as I should be," she leaned forward a little and placed her hand on top of Lucy's. "Thank you very much for looking after me, my dear,"

"It's fine, your Highness," the healing fairy replied brightly. "I'm just glad, and so is everyone else, that you're gonna make a full recovery. You really scared us yesterday,"

Clarion nodded. "I don't know why I suddenly perked up this morning. Last night I felt terrible, but when I woke up I felt fine, as if nothing was wrong." She paused and gazed out the window, deep in thought. "I wonder why that happened today _and _yesterday," she muttered to herself.

Lucy, however, was staring ahead at the wall, as if in a trance. If Clarion had seen her look this way, she would have not had the faintest idea why the healing fairy was acting like this but Lucy knew very well why she had reacted like this. Last night's encounter with that strange sparrowman had shaken her up a little more, not just in that she was unable to explain how he had been able to get inside without her noticing but in the likely possibility that he definitely had something to do with the Queen's sudden recovery. It did sound mad at first when she conjured this up, but it made perfect sense! Yesterday, for example, when the Queen had woken up fine, it had to have been because of that sparrowman visiting her the night previous, even today was another example of this sparrowman having at least something to do with her improving condition. What was it though? Some magic potion? Special healing dust? Magic spells? It had to be something.

Movement next to her snapped her back into reality and she turned her head to see the Queen putting the card that she had set down on her covers back into a small box on the floor next to her bed where all her other things that had been brought to her were, just to see her through the remaining time period she would have here in the medical ward.

As Lucy turned her head, however, she caught something out of the corner of her eye on the bedside cabinet next to the bed. Looking at it, she saw it was a small painting of what appeared to be two fairies on a stone background in a twig picture frame, one with an arm around the other and both smiling ahead of them. Leaning forward with curiosity in her eyes, Lucy picked it up and gazed at the picture to see that the picture was actually a young woman fairy with gold hair and blue eyes and dressed in a sparkly yellow dress. Next to her was a sparrowman who…

Lucy's eyes grew wide with shock when she saw the other person in the picture was. It…it was him! It was the sparrowman, she was sure of it! The clothes, the hair and the face, they all matched to when she had met him face-to-face last night! It was definitely him!

Her breath was caught in her throat and her hand holding the picture began to shake with apprehension. Now this was beginning to scare her! Who was he?! Why was he in this picture? But the more important question that had been in her mind for the last two days was suddenly resurfacing violently again; how did the Queen know him?

"Lucy, my dear, are you alright?" Clarion's concerned voice suddenly piped up, snapping her back into reality.

She turned her head to face Clarion and tried to hide the shocked expression on her face from the Queen.

"Oh, yes, I'm-I'm fine," she replied, trying to laugh it off. "I-I was j-just looking at this," she held up the picture. "Sorry, your Highness, I was just curious,"

Clarion did not seem too unfazed and managed to smile and give a nod, though there was still concern in her eyes over what she had just witnessed.

"Oh, don't worry," she replied, trying to sound okay as she took the picture from Lucy, who passed it to her and gazed at it with a sort of love in her eyes, looking as if she had momentarily forgotten that someone else was in the room with her. "This is an important memory piece for me," she said.

Now Lucy began to lean in closer towards the Queen, her mind completely set on asking the Queen about this mysterious sparrowman in the picture. Surely Clarion must know who she was talking about now after what Lucy had asked her yesterday morning.

"If I may ask, your Highness, but who is that in the picture?" she asked the Queen, who looked up at her and sighed.

"Well, not too long before I met Lord Milori I was in love with a sparrowman who was of a scout talent, hence the colours of his uniform," she explained, indicating to the picture on the last part of the sentence. "He was a very romantic person. Friendly, funny and a huge pillar of comfort for me, just as I was for him as he tended to be very quiet," she sighed lovingly and leaned back onto her pillow. "Oh, it was such an amazing time whenever we were together,"

Lucy could not help but smile at this. Even though this sparrowman was someone who had concerned her over the last few days, she suddenly felt no reason to feel that way about him. In fact, she felt relieved in finally knowing who this sparrowman was that was visiting Clarion.

"That's very sweet," she commented approvingly.

Clarion nodded. "Yes. Oh, it was like Heaven when we first met." She paused and looked down at the picture in her hand and moved her finger over it as if stroking the two figures in a loving manner of happiness for them. "I can still remember being with him now when an art fairy painted us,"

Upon hearing these words, a moment of confusion entered Lucy's mind. Why was the Queen talking about him in this kind of manner.

"Pardon me, your Highness, but can I ask why you're speaking of him like this?" she inquired intently.

Clarion's happy expression saddened a little as she looked momentarily away from the picture at her bed sheets; a silent but definitely downed exhale passing from her nose, which Lucy quickly noticed and became a little worried about what she had just said, but Clarion cut her off before she could ask what was wrong.

"Don't worry, it's fine," she replied sadly. "We were together for three years if I remember right, and they were very happy until…until they came to a horrific halt when he passed away on the mainland during the summer season," Clarion put the picture down and placed one hand on top of the other, resting them on her stomach underneath the bed sheets. "It hit me hard, very ha-Lucy are you sure you're alright?"

When she looked up at the healing fairy, she saw her head half-turned away, eyes as wide as leaves staring at the floor; her face as white as a sheet. A single chilling thought of realisation stuck out in her mind like a sore thumb.

For the last two nights, she had been seeing a _ghost_!


	29. Story 6: The strange dream P1

**Note: Greetings fellow FF writers. I would just like to note that this is to be the last story for this FF for other works have taken priority over this one and plus I've run out of ideas and time for this one so enjoy this one.**

Darkness, nothing but that was all Vidia could see as she glanced in all directions; her heart pounding within her chest as if it were a mad prisoner trying to break free from within her into the outside world, her face contorted into one of fear and complete confusion as she surveyed the scene around her. Where was she? Why and how had she gotten here? And most importantly, how was she to get out of here?

"What the…?" she suddenly muttered to herself, feeling wet drops fall onto her cheeks.

Almost simultaneously, as if by the order of some divine will, the darkness around her brightened a little to reveal her standing in mid-air, not flying but actually standing still as if she were on the ground, dark clouds circling around her. The rain hardened in its fall and now flashes of lightning lit up the air like the sun rising at dawn, the rumble of thunder echoing like the boom of a giant drum being played.

"H-hello?!" Vidia called out into the swirling mass of clouds, her voice though was drowned out by another distant rumble of thunder. "Is anyone there?"

All of a sudden, the invisible force that was keeping Vidia standing upright seemed to vanish as she suddenly fell for a few feet before her wings began to flap furiously and kept her from falling to…well whatever was below. The rain began to fall harder as if it were a typhoon and the wind began to pick up, going from none at all to almost hurricane strong gales in a matter of milliseconds, it was so strong that Vidia, through her squinting vision against the thundering rain, was trying to prevent herself from being blown away. Looking behind her, she saw that her wings were in fact still flapping despite being soaked. Something was definitely strange about all this.

_What's going on? _Vidia thought to herself apprehensively as she once again surveyed the ever darkening clouds around her; another flash of lightning streaking across the sky and was followed immediately by the deafening boom of thunder.

"Hold on up there!"

Vidia whipped herself around and looked up to see a mass of large shapes flying, or to correct myself _struggling to fly_ towards her. As they neared, she saw many smaller shapes sitting on them. Quickly she corrected herself that these smaller shapes were actually figures but they were still too far away for her to decipher their identities. It was clear, however, that they were struggling against the weather that was worsening with every passing second.

"We can't hold out in this weather! We need to land!" a voice shouted from somewhere within the mass.

"Land where?" another, a woman's, shouted back, panic evident within it. "We can barely fly, let alone land!"

"Someone just do something!" another voice, this time a man's, exclaimed in a terrified tone.

They were getting closer now and Vidia, fighting as best she could against the wind and rain, tried to fly towards them, her squinting eyes trying to get a fix on them. As they came closer, she began to make out wings on the large shapes and small humanoid figures on the backs of them, each of them holding on tightly to the saddles strapped onto their larger counterparts or the leaf boxes strapped onto the back of the saddles. They…they looked like…like…

Vidia froze as if she had been hit with some kind of time freezing spell, her eyes as wide as dinner plates, her face contorted into a look of terror as her mouth quivered violently, unable to comprehend with what she was seeing. It was…it was fellow fairies and birds! They…they were struggling in the storm!

As the birds neared slightly, Vidia saw them struggling to stay airborne with the other fairies holding onto dear life. The bird at the front of the mass looked to be on the verge of suddenly passing out, as she could tell by its rapid breathing, hard flapping wings in its plight to stay airborne and the weakening of the eyes combined with sharp drops of the head. Behind it, all of the other birds were doing the same.

"Guys, hold on tightly!" another woman's voice cried out, but this one was one Vidia recognized.

Looking up, an even more terrified look came across her face as she saw another dove struggling to stay airborne, its wings flapping wildly as it was forced back by the ever strengthening wind. Clinging onto the sides of the saddles for dear life was Rosetta, a look of pure terror on her face. Silvermist was trying to lead the bird on in the direction of the others but it was proving difficult because she could barely open her eyes to see what she was doing. Behind her, Fawn and Iridessa were trying to pull Rosetta back onto the safety of the saddle but the rain pounding their faces was proving extremely difficult.

"Guys, wait up! I'm coming!" Vidia shouted out to them.

She flew towards them at full speed, determination running through her to try and stop a disaster from happening. She was about forty feet, if you were going by fairy measurements, from them and was getting closer. Thirty, twenty five, almost there!

Suddenly, her body began to heavy and her wings began to slow drastically, almost stopping her in mid-air. She fought as hard as she could against the failing strength of her wings, but it was no use. It was not working! It was not working! The dove was now moving away, but it was barely able to stay up and Rosetta began to cry out that her grip was beginning to tire because her hand was going numb.

_No! Don't let go, Rosetta! _Vidia mentally pleaded as if would pass to her telepathically and tried to fly after them but it was getting harder and harder to do so.

"Oh no!" another voice cried out all of a sudden.

Looking up in the direction of the voice, she saw a young, female animal fairy pointing with a petrified look on her face ahead of her. Vidia's gaze followed it and her mouth dropped open, hopelessness flooding her eyes.

One of the doves had suddenly given up and was falling like a stone, the other fairies screaming as they held on for dear life even though it was evident of the state of theirs and the bird's. But as Vidia watched them disappear into the clouds far below she quickly saw others dropping like flies with their passengers, all of them heading to an uncertain fate though to anyone witnessing this horrific situation their minds would resort to the worst likely scenario.

"No! No, no! Don't fail, please!" she suddenly heard Silvermist cry from above.

_Oh no! _Vidia thought, knowing what was about to happen.

She looked up and, just as she feared, the dove her four friends were riding was suddenly dropping and rising, its wings now flapping uselessly in the air as it struggled violently to stay flying but the falling of its counterparts around him seemed to hit the bird hard and, with a final weak breath, he gave in and began to fall; the screams of the four girls rushing in her ears.

"No! No! NO!" Vidia screamed in terror, watching as the dove with Iridessa, Fawn, Rosetta and Silvermist disappeared into the clouds below and out of sight, no doubt, to Vidia's mind at least, to what their fate was.

Then, her wings began to grow heavy and her body quickly followed. Panic seized her like a giant hand grabbing her and she struggled to stay flying, trying her best to get her wings to flap again but it was no use. It was absolutely no use whatsoever! There was no way she could get through this!

Finally, her body, drained of the last reserves of its strength, gave up and Vidia plummeted like a fly hit with fly spray into the clouds. Her screams were drowned out by the sound of the wind rushing past her as she disappeared into uncertainty.


	30. The strange dream P2

"AH!"

Vidia shot upright, a wall of white covers falling down onto her lap covered by more of the fabric. Her heart was still pounding heavily from inside her chest and she placed a hand on it as if to try and calm it down, feeling slightly reassured by its beating. Her eyes, wide with fright, surveyed her surroundings. It was a small round room with a single cut out window, a door, a small wardrobe filled with leaf clothes and shoes and a small chest of drawers against the wall next to her bed. She sighed in a relieved manner.

"I'm okay!" she whispered to herself, exhausted but happy with the fact she was safe. "Just a…bad dream!"

She laid her head back down on the pillow of her bed and gazed up at the ceiling, her mind gradually coming back together after what had just happened and replaying it over and over again. The clouds, the rain and wind, the struggling fairies and doves and then all of them falling like flies to an uncertain fate, all of it was there and even though it had just been a creation of her mind as she slept she still shuddered at the sense that it just felt so real, as if she had actually gone through an experience like that.

For several minutes she just laid there, her chest rising and falling slowly with the rhythm of her breathing, each time she did so helped her calm down more. She tried to push what she had experienced in her sleep out of her mind but it was extremely difficult as it just stayed rooted there like some kind of parasite sticking to the body of a host.

_Why won't it go away?! _She thought frustratingly to herself, a look of annoyance etching across her face. _Just leave me alone!_

But then something else came into her mind, an answer to her question but…but it was one that made Vidia a little nervous. Well, maybe not nervous but just…uneasy.

What if…what if it was not just a dream? What if it was…well, how to put it…a kind of warning? What if it was something like that?

_Knock! Knock! Knock! _"Vidia?!"

For the second time, the fast flying fairy shot upright in bed as if she had received an electric shock, though this time was out of realisation of something else. Momentarily glancing at the window, she saw sunlight passing through the hole and into the room and a blue sky outside with the sound of rustling leaves accompanying it. It was daytime, and if it was daytime…

"Oh no! I'm late!" she cursed angrily to herself.

Literally flying out of bed, she went over to the door and opened it to reveal another fast flying fairy standing there, a young woman with short blue hair and violet coloured eyes. She was dressed in a purple top and a pair of short trousers and with a pair of purple leaf shoes on her feet. Her face held a surprised expression, having been shocked by Vidia's sudden answer to her.

"Oh, Vidia, um…glad your awake," she said, a little confused at first.

"Veronica, today's the day we leave for the mainland, isn't it?" she asked.

The fast flying fairy nodded. "Yeah, everyone's leaving soon. I came to get you because we need to be with th-hey, wait up!"

Without even bothering to let her finish, Vidia raced past her and through her open front door out into the open air and took off in the direction of the Home Tree; her friend, after closing the front door to her house, following close behind as she tried to keep up.

**Several moments later**

At the base of the Home Tree, the air was filled with the hustle and bustle of all sorts of activity. Fairies were loading supplies onto the waiting doves; some were talking to each other about their assigned duties on the mainland; others preparing for the travel there by strapping on the saddles to the birds. Some fairies raced to and from different parts of the surrounding vegetation to the base of the Home Tree to give instructions or to help bring out supplies for the coming journey. This was the summer preparation for the journey to the mainland and soon it would be taking off to bring a new season to the human world.

Nearby, Vidia touched down and walked into the mass of activity among the fairies, her ears taking in all the talking, clattering, ordering, instructing and what have you around her. Veronica landed behind her where Vidia had come down but quickly lost sight of her fellow fast flying companion in the crowd and her calls to her were drowned out by the immenseness of the activity around her.

As Vidia strolled through the mass of moving fairies, birds and equipment, her eyes searched every face, desperately trying to find where the other fairies were, that is Fawn Iridessa, Silvermist and Rosetta. After a few moments, she found them strapping on equipment such as rainbow holders, bee liner parts and such to another bird and she rushed over to them.

"Okay, whoa there, big guy!" Fawn chuckled as she rubbed the cheek of the dove as it stretched out its wings.

"Oh, hey Vidia," Iridessa, who looked up from strapping the saddle on and saw her coming, greeted friendly.

"Hey," she replied but quickly noticed that someone was absent. "Um…where's Tinkerbell?" she asked, confused.

The others turned their heads, taking in their surroundings and the faces of their fellow fairies nearby, hoping to find the face of their friend in the crowd, but none of them achieved this.

"Well…that's actually a good question, Vidia," Rosetta answered her, looking at the fast flyer. "I haven't seen her all morning so far,"

"Me neither," Silvermist added.

Vidia 'hmmed' to herself, knowing that this was a very strange thing to happen, especially to Tinkerbell. She loved the mainland, particularly during the summer months and so why she was not here really was a mystery. Where was she? It was not like her to be late.

"Hey, Silvermist?" Fawn asked as she turned and held the side of the saddle in place as Iridessa strapped it in. "D'you think the weather's gonna hold out?" she asked.

Silvermist nodded. "Of course," she beamed, looking up at the sky with admiration in her eyes. "It's a perfect day. Blue sky, calm wind, no clouds or rain or any other kind of storm to slow our trip, it'll be a fine day,"

Vidia, who had been listening whilst still searching for Tinkerbell, suddenly felt a sharp ping in her head upon hearing the last two words. _A fine day_. For some reason, she just felt that something was wrong with that. She could not pinpoint it, but just…somewhere within her mind something was telling her that she and everyone else here was in grave danger, but how? How could they? Silvermist had said it would be fine weather going to the mainland and besides even Vidia could tell that it was going to be fi-

Wait a minute. Vidia's mind froze as if it had been locked into a freezer as it stopped on the one thing that had been playing on her mind since she had woken up, and even before that. The dream, the uneasy feeling back at her house and now the apprehension here; all of it sort of came together. What if…what if it was a kind of…well warning or omen or something like that.

_It can't be! _Vidia mentally slapped herself. _That sort of thing doesn't exist! It's stupid. _

But still the thought gnawed at her mind, as if trying to drill into it literally. Still, it said what if it was true? Could it be? Could it really be true?

It was then Vidia's fear got the better of her.

"Um, sorry guys I have to go find the ministers," she said to the others quickly and flew off quickly before any of them could stop her, leaving them confused.

"What's with her?" Silvermist asked the others in a confused voice, but they either shook their heads or shrugged their shoulders, unable to answer her.

Nearby, somewhere else in the mass of activity another dove was being prepared for the coming journey. Bobble and Clank were busy loading up with the Tinker tools that would be needed back at the fairy camp.

"Alrighty, Clanky," Bobble said as he tugged at the strap to make sure it was tight. "Everything ready?" he asked.

"Almost, Bobble," his large friend replied, from the pile of equipment on the back of the dove, replied. "Just need to check a few more things and then we can set off,"

Bobble nodded and, as Vidia and the others had done minutes ago, surveyed the surrounding crowd looking for a missing friend of theirs, a little concern filling his eyes when he could not spot her.

_Wonder where she is? _He mentally said to himself.

But just as he turned back to the dove, he gasped and jumped back a little when he saw a fairy standing in front of him. To his relief, it was Tinkerbell but she looked a little different. Her face held an expression of what looked to be misery; her eyes in particular had bags under them and they looked a lot more worn out than usual. Bobble stared, surprised at her appearance, which Tinkerbell saw and glared at him.

"What?!" she asked sordidly through gritted teeth.

Bobble was slightly taken aback by the tone of her voice, but still thought it was okay to inquire further.

"Tinkerbell…a-are you alright?" he asked her with concern in his voice.

"Yes, I'm fine!" she snapped, which attracted Clank's attention as he overheard the conversation.

"Are you sure, Miss Bell?" he asked and she looked up at him with an annoyed expression. "You don't look very well, is everything alright?"

"Look, will you guys knock it off!" she spat, her face now reddening with anger. "I'm fine, now stop asking!" she stormed past Bobble to the back part of the saddle. "Now c'mon, we haven't got all day!"

The two Tinker companions decided not to argue and Bobble went onto the dove to help Clank out in checking they had the right equipment.

_What's with her this morning? _They were both mentally asking themselves, also hoping not to get on the wrong side of Tinkerbell again.


	31. The strange dream P3

Vidia raced through the sky towards the queen's meeting chambers near the Home Tree; determination racing through her to get to the ministers and tell them urgently of what she believed was coming. Her mind was racing with a thousand thoughts: How was she to tell them about her dream? Would they believe her? Was it even real, or was it just her? All of these questions were buzzing around in her mind like bees within a hive but none of them were offering or even led to an answer.

As she flew towards a large building, in fairy proportions, made of twigs and leaves on the ground near the Home Tree, she caught sight of a few tall figures outside the entrance to it. The Minister of Spring was there, and so was the Minister of Summer. With them were several scout fairies and storm fairies; all of them talking about the coming journey, supplies and what not. The Minister of Summer was holding a leaf clipboard and whilst she was talking to the others, she was crossing things off, meaning that this or that batch of supplies and equipment was all ready for the work in the coming months on the mainland.

"…Right, that's all the Tinker tools and rainbow holders," she was saying, crossing off another item on the clipboard as if it were a shopping list. "Okay, now all we need to do is check the birds and everyone else is ready and then we'll be good to go,"

"Hope the weather's good," one of the scout fairies stated with a slight hint of concern in her voice.

"Don't worry, it'll be okay. Sky's a clear as a bluebell," a male storm fairy reassured her.

"Is that Vidia coming over here? What in Neverland does she want?" the Minister of Spring suddenly spoke up, looking up at the approaching fast flyer.

The other fairies did the same and were surprised when they saw a frantic looking Vidia land in front of them and instantly begin babbling to them.

"Ministers! You need to listen! I know you might think I'm crazy but-"

"Vidia-" the Minister of Spring tried to intervene but she did not hear him.

She continued to babble on about something for a few more moments, puzzling the fairies around her as she said something about a storm and everyone being caught in it and her waking up. Eventually, the Minister of Spring had to almost shout her name to stop her chattering mouth.

"Now, Vidia," he said firmly. "Calm down and _slowly tell us _what is wrong? What's the matter with you? Why are you so worked up?"

She sighed heavily and looked up at the two Ministers. "You can't launch the trip to the mainland," she said.

For a moment, all those around her went quiet; their eyes glancing from one to another as if uncertain of what to say. Then again, who would not be confused or at least surprised when someone had told them something like this?

"Right, well are you going to tell us why we shouldn't do something like that?" the Minister of Spring inquired in a sort of impatient tone after a few moments' silence.

"Look, I know it's crazy, but you have to trust me! Last night, I had a dream in which we were all caught in a really bad storm on the way to the mainland and everyone, including all the birds started falling out of the sky like flies! It was horrible! I tried to help, but nothing I did worked!" her voice began to grow slightly hysterical, but she quickly regained her composure. "Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I don't think we should go. We'll be in really bad danger if we do."

She paused and let that sink into those around her, awaiting their reaction with frantic eyes. For a moment, they just repeated their glances at each other as if they were talking to someone who was completely out of her head. Then one of the storm fairies chuckled, drawing the gazes of the others.

"Well, Vidia!" he said, looking at her. "I have to say, I never thought you were the joking type, but that was a good one, I'll give ya that."

Vidia stared at him for a moment, and then felt anger boil up inside her.

"It's not a joke!" she snapped vehemently back at the storm fairy. "This was real! I know it because I saw it! I'm not joking or lying, I'm telling the truth!"

"Alright, Vidia! That's enough!" the Minister of Spring interjected with a firm tone once again, silencing her.

"Look, Vidia," the Minister of Summer, who had remained mostly silent, piped up, stepping forward. "You cannot stop this trip from happening. You do realise we have to go, we're meant to."

"I know that!" she snapped angrily back at them. "But I'm trying to save everyone else's skin! Please, you gotta believe me!"

By this point, the Minister of Spring could not contain himself any longer. "Alright, that is enough of this Vidia! Stop this nonsense at once! You've had your joke, now just drop it! You're wasting ours and everybody else's time!"

The fast flyer tried to say something back to him, but he held up a hand to stop her and, gritting her teeth together tightly, she stamped her foot.

"Alright, you won't believe me then I'll stop it myself!" she turned and flew off back towards the Home Tree. "And don't try and stop me!" she shouted back.

"Vidia, come back! Vidia!" the Minister of Spring shouted after her, but she ignored him, now more determined than ever to go after the mass of fairies and doves and hopefully stop them before it was too late.

As she wheeled around the Home Tree and landed back on the clearing, she saw the flight of doves all packed up to the brim with equipment and crowded with fairies, no doubt meaning that this was to be a busy summer. Vidia felt her heart leap. She had made it, but only just. Now she had to stop them before taking off, and the beast way to do that was to find out who was leading them.

"Alright, Tinkerbell, when you're ready!" a voice called out.

Tinkerbell! Now she remembered that she was chosen to lead it this year! She had to find her and stop her from going or it was too late!

Vidia flew into the mass of doves, ignoring the wave of comments and gasps that followed her as she searched for the tinker fairy's dove. Finally, she found it nearby at the front of the mass of doves, Tinkerbell sitting at the front with her back to Vidia, ready to give the order to go. The fast flyer zoomed towards her.

"Tinkerbell! Stop!" she almost screamed.

Her friend wheeled round in surprise. "What the…? What's going on?!" she demanded furiously.

The fast flyer grabbed her shoulder and shook her violently when she reached her.

"Tinkerbell, don't take them to the mainland! Don't do it, please! You're all in grave danger!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Tinkerbell interrupted, pushing her friend's arms off her. "Vidia, what's wrong with you? Why are you acting like this?"

"There you are!" another voice snapped angrily and Vidia and Tinkerbell, along with Bobble and Clank who were sitting on the back of the dove, looked to see the Ministers of Spring and Summer flying towards them; the former with an expression of utter disappointment on his face.

"Minister?" Tinkerbell asked, confused. "What's going on here?! What's wrong with Vidia?!" she demanded.

"Don't take any notice of it, Tinkerbell," he told her. "Vidia, stop this incompetent behaviour this instant!"

"I'm not stopping anything until you stop this flight from leaving!" she replied angrily.

The Minister of Spring glared at her with a piercing gaze, his face reddening a little like Tinkerbell's would when she was angry.

"Vidia, I'm going to ask you once more! Stop this right now, I mean it!" he said to her in a calm but obviously dangerous tone.

"And so do I!" she snapped back at him and turned to face Tinkerbell. "Tinkerbell, you've gotta believe me! You can't lead this flight of doves to the mainland!"

Her friend just stared at her momentarily with a confused expression and rubbed her baggy blue eyes as if trying to keep them open.

"Alright, what's this about?" she asked the Minister of Spring in a voice that told him she was fed up this confrontation already.

He sighed in an annoyed manner. "Oh, she had this dream last night, Tinkerbell, where this flight of doves was caught in a storm on the way to the mainland and you all drop out of the sky," he explained to her. "Look, it's just a dream, Tinkerbell! Don't take any notice of it. Now c'mon, we have to go. We're late as it is?"

Now all eyes turned back to the tinker fairy, who stood rooted to the spot for a moment as if unsure what to do. She looked at the dove's head below her, then up at the clear blue sky in the direction of the second star to the right and stayed doing that for a moment as if transfixed by its beauty. Then a look of anger came onto her face and she turned back to the others.

"No!" she said firmly.

The reply took everyone by surprise. Vidia went wide-eyed, as did Bobble and Clank. The Minister of Summer placed her hand over her mouth. As for the Minister of Spring, a shocked expression came onto his face momentarily but that quickly changed to a look of fury.

"What was that?" he whispered to her, his voice one of ice.

"I said: I'm not going anywhere!" she snapped, her voice much louder.

By this point, the Minister of Spring had had enough. His face turned red with anger, making him look like a red apple, and he grabbed the two of them by their arms.

"Right, you two are coming with me!" he shouted angrily and hauled them away.


	32. The strange dream P4

**Minutes later**

"I cannot believe the incompetence of you two today!" the Minister of Spring ranted, pacing back and forth in front of the two as they stood in the gathering chamber of Pixie Hollow; Queen Clarion and the Minister of Summer standing near them. "You've frightened the entire party on the way to the mainland and now because of that we're late as it is!"

Vidia tried to interject. "But, Minister, you don't understand! I-"

"No, Vidia, it is you who doesn't understand!" he cut her off with a harsh tone. "This dream of yours, if that is what it even was, has done nothing but interrupt everything we have spent many centuries working on! I'm disappointed in you!" his wrath fell on Tinkerbell next. "And especially with you, Tinkerbell! I don't know why you have decided to believe this completely ludicrous story of Vidia's and thus frighten everyone else further into not going to the mainland!"

"Look, the reason I didn't want to go is because she looked serious," she argued back.

"She argued back?" the Minister of Spring repeated and sighed. "You two are completely-"

He was interrupted by the resting of Queen Clarion's hand on his shoulder and she gave him a look as if to say _"I'll take it from here," _and he subsided, letting her take over.

"Now, Vidia, Tinkerbell," she began. "Whatever this story may be, I sincerely hope that there is no co-operation between you two in a sort of practical joke here," she stated

"What!" Vidia and Tinkerbell exclaimed in unison, the latter's eyes that still looked heavy and tired suddenly snapping open like a blind being pulled up very quickly.

"Your Highness, that's not fair! We would never do anything like that!" Vidia defended them firmly. "What I'm saying to you is the truth! One hundred per cent it is the truth, I promise you!"

Queen Clarion raised an eyebrow as if to say: _"Is that so?" _and sighed.

"Well, Vidia, I am not saying you're lying," she replied calmly, but her voice did hold a sense of firmness within it "But as we do not have definitive proof of this dream you have had, I cannot believe you either. Now, I'm going to ask you two to go back to the rest of the flight and prepare to leave for the mainland,"

Neither of the two fairies moved, the overwhelming shock seemed to hold them on the spot. Their minds were blank, but their hearts raged with anger and sorrow. It was not fair! They, or at least Vidia, were telling the truth, they were not lying! There was no way they would lie about something as serious as this anyway, that would just be plain stupid! It was not fair at all!

Several moments passed and still they had not moved, which seemed to begin to irritate Clarion.

"Well, are you two going to go or not?" she asked them, through her voice clearly hinted what she wanted them to do.

Another moment passed until Vidia shook her head. "No, your Highness, I'm not going anywhere, and neither is Tinkerbell! If we go on that flight now, we're all going to die!"

"Vidia!" Clarion snapped forcefully, surprising the two Ministers with them, but she quickly regained control of herself. "Don't every say something like that, it's not nice! You could frighten somebody! Now I'm giving you one last chance to go back and get ready to leave, or I will have to punish you! Is that cle-"

"Your majesty?" a woman's voice suddenly spoke up and all eyes turned towards the entrance to the hall to see a scout talent fairy standing there, having just arrived when the queen was telling off Vidia and Tinkerbell. "Sorry to disturb you, your Highness but another scout talent has arrived back from the mainland and-" she trailed off.

"And? And what?" the Minister of Spring urged her.

"Well…he's…he's really exhausted and…well, look at him," she replied, turning and momentarily leaving the hall, returning with another scout talent fairy whose appearance shocked all in the hall.

He was a tall fairy with brown hair that was almost soaked through and still dripping wet, his clothes were also soaking wet as if he had just come out of a swimming pool and his wings hung behind him like washing out on the line. His breathing also was quick and ragged as if he had been running a marathon and he almost stumbled over as he entered the hall, and would have done had the woman scout fairy stopped him.

"My goodness!" the Minister of Summer gasped. "Ali, what happened to you?"

He tried to speak, but his heavy breathing prevented him and it was clear the way he was stooping over that he needed to sit down and so the Minister of Spring quickly fluttered over and got him a chair, which he collapsed onto, resting his head on the back with an arm hanging over the side. Water flowed down the legs onto the floor.

"Ali, are you okay? What happened to you?" Queen Clarion asked him, kneeling down next to him.

For a few moments, he continued to breathe heavily and then, looking up at the queen and the others as they gathered round him, he began to spoke.

"I-I was…on my way…back…to…to Pixie Hollow and…this storm, it-it came outta nowhere!" he breathed, pausing for a moment to cough loudly. "It got me and…and I only just made it back before my wings gave up! You should have seen it, it was unreal!"

All of a sudden, all eyes were now wide as dinner plates and turned towards Vidia and Tinkerbell, who stood there motionless with shock, unable to comprehend what they had just heard.

"Are you sure it just happened now?" Tinkerbell asked him and he nodded.

"Yeah," he replied, managing to speak more clearly now. "Why didn't you guys leave? It was a good thing you didn't, though,"

"Vidia and Tinkerbell managed to stop them from leaving at the last moment," the Minister of Spring answered and turned towards them. "And with good reason,"

Tinkerbell and Vidia turned their heads to look at each other, still overwhelmed with what they had just done and even more so by what could have happened had they not stopped the flight to the mainland from leaving.

They had just saved everyone from almost certain death!

**Minutes later**

Back outside, the reports of the sudden weather front hitting the mainland had caused Clarion to postpone the mission there until it cleared up. All the doves were being unpacked and all the equipment was being put to the side until it was to be packed again. Clarion, meanwhile, had told Vidia and Tinkerbell to go home and get some rest at first, but they refused and said they would help unpack everything to which the queen, probably reluctantly, agreed.

At the moment, as Tinkerbell passed another leaf box of rainbow holders to Bobble and Clank, Vidia, who was standing next to her, spoke up.

"Thanks for sticking up for me, Tinkerbell," she said to her.

The blonde haired fairy turned to look at her and nodded. "It's okay," she replied. "I'm just glad that neither of us were right in what we saw,"

Vidia nodded and looked back up at the sky in the direction of the Second Star, the gateway to the mainland and where the storm, though they could not see it from here, was probably raging now and it was a miracle they avoided it and losing everyone and everythi-wait a minute.

Vidia turned her head back to Tinkerbell who was undoing the strap of the saddle of the dove, a questionable look on her face.

"Wait, are you saying you knew about this as well?" Vidia asked her.

Tinkerbell looked up at her and nodded. "Yeah, I didn't say it whilst we were in the hall because I was tired and too stressed out,"

"B-but…how did you know about it?" Vidia pressed on.

"Well," Tinkerbell turned and faced her fast-flying friend. "Last night, I had the same dream as you did, hence the baggy eyes. It's funny what dreaming of the future can do to you."

With that, Tinkerbell undid the saddle strap her side and walked around to the other side of the dove to undo it there, leaving Vidia standing there, breathless with disbelief.

**Note: Well everyone, I have to say writing these stories has been great fun, but unfortunately loss of interest, college work and other FF's have caused me to focus more away from this FF and so this is the last story to be put on here. I hope you have enjoyed them and will continue to enjoy them in the future.  
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